Chameleon Changes
by Shira Lansys
Summary: While the Marauders are trying to become animagi, something goes awry and Sirius and Remus switch bodies. And if Remus thought that being Sirius would be his biggest problem, he's got another thing coming. RemusSirius, slash. ABANDONED
1. Complications and Catastrophes

**A/N: So I'm taking a rather overused idea (that I think is really quite cool) and hopefully making it more original. There are probably more then twenty fics out there with this same idea, but I think that I can make it more interesting and better written than at least half of them. **

**This story will have Remus paired with a Male OC, but it is a temporary pairing. Yes, once again it's the whole "make-Sirius-jealous" thing, but the other reason I pair him with someone else is that I don't think Remus fell in love with Sirius and never met anyone else (other than Tonks in the book, but she doesn't count). **

**This will be quite a few chapters long, probably seven or so, but I'll let you know once I've written the last one exactly how many it will be. It will definitely be over 30,000 words, and probably over 50,000. Just a warning for you. **

**It is M rated, starting from the second chapter. It will contain gay relationships and will describe, in detail, gay sex. If this offends you, please go no further. **

**I make no profit from this fanfiction, and am writing it purely for my own enjoyment. All characters, places, words like "muggle" etc belong to JKR and Warner Brothers (who ruined the storyline in the movies, btw). **

**Please R&R**

**Beta: ChronicxInsanity**

* * *

><p><strong>Chameleon Changes Chapter 1<strong>

_Complications__ and Catastrophes_

"Don't you think you should at least wait another couple of days? Memorise the spells some more? Do some more research?" Remus pleaded, ever the voice of reason for all three of his friends. "Something could go horribly wrong."

James and Sirius shared a glance, and Peter rolled his eyes at the werewolf's worrying. "We'll be fine, Remus. We've flown through the rest of it, haven't we? This is supposed to take seven years, and after this, and our first transformation, it will only have taken us five. We can do this."

Since their second year, the three boys had been working on becoming animagi, with much help from their clever, albeit reluctant, werewolf pal. It was an extremely difficult magical transformation, something that most adult witches and wizards - even well-accomplished ones - never managed to achieve. But now, in their sixth year, the boys were finally beginning to see the fruits of their labours.

"Besides, Moony, aren't you looking forward to having us with you at the next full moon?" Sirius's voice was child-like, as though he was seeking reassurance. If that was what he was looking for, however, he would have to find it somewhere else.

"Yes, I can't wait for the opportunity to rip my three best friends to pieces," Remus said coldly. "It's been my lifelong ambition."

"Don't be like that," James scolded wearily, as though he had heard this argument many times before. "You won't hurt us. We're too big for you take on."

Remus didn't say anything. James would find out the hard way just how wrong he was. The werewolf just hoped that it wouldn't cost him too much.

"As if you could take him on, Prongs," Sirius scoffed, using James's recently-discovered nickname. "You're a grass-eater. If anyone'll take Moony on, it'll be me. I'm the _Grim_!"

"You're not the Grim, Padfoot," Peter said wisely. "You're a dog. The Grim is something else entirely."

Sirius, showing wisdom and maturity beyond what Remus had thought he possessed, stuck out his tongue.

The four boys sat in a circle in a dimly-lit space - the secret passageway behind a mirror in Hogwarts. In the middle of them was a triangle James had carved into the floor with magic. It was an odd looking triangle due to the many lines and words written in Latin that ran through its centre. "I still don't think-" Remus began, but James cut him off.

"Look, Moony, we've said it before and we'll say it again. We're going to do this, with or without you. It's not an issue to us whether you give consent. And wouldn't you rather be able to supervise us and keep us from doing something stupid?"

"This entire _thing _is stupid!" Remus exclaimed. "Stupid and ridiculous and _extremely dangerous_!" I don't think any of you realise just what you're getting yourselves into."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "It should be known, my dear Moony, that we aren't above placing a silencing charm on you…."

Sulkily, Remus took the hint and shut up. James licked his lips, slightly nervously, before continuing. "Okay, so we all know how this works. Sirius is going first. When he gets into the triangle he has to say the enchantment _exactly_. Before you go in, Sirius, repeat it one last time."

Sirius nodded, and reeled off a long string of Latin at a pace that even someone who was fluent in the language would struggle to keep up with. Remus listened attentively and, when Sirius finished and looked at the werewolf for approval, he nodded. "That's right," Remus said begrudgingly. "But you can't go as fast as that during the actual thing."

Sirius nodded gravely, jokes cast aside in the sobriety of the event. Nervously, he heaved himself up from his cross-legged position and made his way forwards into the middle of the triangle. James, Peter, and Remus all clustered back further down the large passageway.

"_Obvium Narvate," _Sirius whispered, pointing at each of the corners of the triangle with his wand in quick succession.

The symbol started glowing, and the onlookers had to shield their eyes because of the brightness. Remus turned around, dashing further down the tunnel, and returned with heavy-looking book.

"Do you really need that?" James asked Sirius began chanting the incantation in a strong voice. Remus shook his head.

"No, I know it off by heart. But I thought I'd better have it for reference."

Peter and James shared a look that clearly said things like "worrywart" and "insane werewolf". Remus didn't notice, being too occupied flicking his eyes from the diagrams in the book to the real thing happening before his eyes.

Sirius finished chanting now, and the light from the triangle began to turn orange. James continued watching, oblivious to anything being wrong, but Peter frowned.

"Remus? Isn't it supposed to turn blue?"

Within seconds the werewolf had his wand out and was charging toward the triangle. "Moony! NO!" James cried out, starting forwards as he meant to go after the werewolf, but Peter managed to grab his arm.

"Just wait, James. You can't help now, only Remus can." James hesitated, but finally nodded.

"_Finite incantatem_!" Remus cried. "_Cancelleous Trigram_! _Finite_! _FINITE_!" He had reached the triangle now, and the light was still shining brightly. His spells hadn't worked. He had a split second to decide what he was going to do. He barely hesitated.

He dashed through the wall of light, blinded by its brightness. His hands reached out in an attempt to find Sirius, and after a few seconds he managed to grasp the boy's arm. He was about to pull him out of harm's way when the triangle exploded with light and the two of them were thrown backwards with the force of the explosion.

James and Peter had to shield their eyes again, but they heard the boys' yells. As soon as the light had disappeared, they rushed forward. They weren't thinking about their safety, acting very much like the courageous but foolish Gryffindors that they were, but it seemed the magic had died when Sirius and Remus were thrown out of the triangle.

"Sirius! Remus!" James exclaimed, running to the boy's sides. "Are you both okay?"

He reached Sirius first, and the boy looked up at him dazedly. "I think I'm alright," he said. James was so relieved he didn't even notices the difference in the way the boy spoke.

"What about you, Remus?" James asked, moving to the other boy's side.

"Remus" raised his head. "Who are you calling Remus, Prongsie? I'm Sirius, remember?" This time the difference in the voice was unmistakeable - Sirius had a lilt in his voice, probably the result of his pure-blood upbringing, that did not suit Remus at all.

"Sirius?" James asked. The boy who looked like Remus grinned.

"That's me. Sorry to disappoint. I never knew you were so keen on Remus - I'll be sure to let Evans know that she has competition."

"Oh Merlin," the boy who looked like Sirius breathed. "These most definitely aren't my hands. And Sirius, you don't look like Sirius. You look like me."

"So you're Remus?" James asked Sirius's body. Remus-who-looked-like-Sirius nodded.

"We must have switched bodies," he said thoughtfully. "The transformation magic had nowhere to go when the spell didn't work, so it transformed us into each other. I don't know why it didn't work, although I'm thinking it must have been the triangle because I'm almost certain that Sirius said the incantation correctly."

"Wicked!" Sirius-who-looked-like-Remus said, examining his hands. "I get to live a day in the life of Moony!"

Remus's eyes flashed. "No Sirius, it is most definitely not wicked! Do you have any idea what this means?"

"You're actually going to get girls now that you have a hot body?" Sirius said. Remus glared even harder. "Not that you don't have a hot body," Sirius quickly amended. "I mean, I'm not saying you do, because that would mean I was looking and I _haven't _been, and-"

Remus cut him off. "Forget about that, Sirius. _This_ won't just last a day. We're stuck like this until we find a way to change ourselves back."

Sirius shrugged. "That's not too bad, as long as we _do_ find a way. How long do you think it should take? Because I don't want to be stuck looking like this for ages, you know…"

"I don't know." Remus put his head in his hands. "But I don't think we'll find it soon enough."

Sirius, and James and Peter, looked confused at the werewolf's misery. "Soon enough for what?" James asked.

Remus raised his head. "How can you guys forget? The next full moon is in two weeks. If we don't reverse this before then, Sirius will be transforming into a werewolf."

* * *

><p>Two a.m. saw the four of them grouped around a small table in the Restricted Section, each of them pouring over individual books that were thicker than they were tall. Every so often, one of them would get up and tiptoe over to the shelves to exchange their book.<p>

"Not in here," James sighed, quietly shutting a particularly thick one. "Remus, why did you tell me to look at potions books?"

"Hm? Oh, because I think that the cure might be a lot more difficult than a simple spell. If it is one, it's most likely to be a complicated incantation or something like the triangle enchantment that got us into this mess. But I was thinking that there might be a general potion that could work to counteract the effects of the casting-triangle."

The words seemed strange coming from Sirius's mouth. It wasn't that he wasn't smart, but Sirius was the type of person that never really showed his intelligence until it came to tests, which he managed to ace with zero study (to the infuriation of a certain werewolf, who spent half his life studying). To hear him give detailed explanations like that was really the strangest thing of all. James shuddered to imagine what it would be like the next time Remus, in Sirius's body, tried to have a complex debate with a Ravenclaw over the merits of the Farvelle theory versus the Green theory, or whatever it was.

The poor student might die of shock.

James went to get up, glancing down at his watch as he did so. "Remus!" He exclaimed in a loud whisper. "It's two o'clock! Don't you think we should be in bed?"

"You lot are the ones who refused to go to McGonagall," Remus reminded him. "We have a week to find a cure; otherwise, I'm going to the teachers. And that's assuming that it's a spell we can master or a potion we can make in the remaining week before the full moon."

James shrugged. They had already discussed this. He and Sirius were both confident that they could find something before then. At least, he hoped so, for Sirius's sake.

"We still need sleep though," Peter said logically. "You'll need to be awake for tomorrow. You have to pretend to be each other."

Neither he nor James could hide their grins at the thought. Remus and Sirius, however, did not seem to find it so amusing. Remus especially.

"Don't make it difficult for us," he warned them. "If anyone finds out what we were trying to do, all four of us will be expelled."

"What? You won't be expelled, Remus," Peter said.

James nodded. "Yeah, if we get caught, we wouldn't mention you. We'd just say we were doing it because we have big heads and you stopped us from getting ourselves killed. They don't need to know you were involved."

Remus suddenly found it hard to speak. They'd do that for him?

He cleared his throat. "Well, let's not make it necessary. We need to find a cure, or, failing that, an excuse for why we were doing what we were doing."

James nodded. "Yes, sir! But right now, we should be heading off to bed."

There were two noises of assent from Sirius and Peter, and Remus finally nodded his agreement.

"Oh, by the way Remus," Sirius said lightly as they made their way out of the library. "I - well, actually, you - are currently dating a sixth-year Hufflepuff named Gretel Ailson. You can dump her if you like." Sirius's voice was careless and full of humour.

"Gee, thanks," Remus said sarcastically. "How generous of you."

"I don't suppose I can pick you up a bird while I'm in this body, can I?" Sirius asked.

"Absolutely not," Remus replied instantly.

* * *

><p>Remus sat with his back against the cool stone wall. Above him, the window let in the cold even further, and he shivered slightly in the chill. His thoughts turned over and over in his head.<p>

He didn't think he could do this. He couldn't pretend to be Sirius, even just for a day, and he knew it would be a lot longer than that. He couldn't swagger into a classroom radiating confidence. He couldn't cheekily call out to teachers in the middle of class, or call Professor McGonagall "Minnie", even just behind her back, let alone to her face, like Sirius did.

He couldn't be the energetic ball of fun that Sirius was. He was Remus Lupin, the boy that faded into the shadows and had once been mistaken for a part of the wall in Defence Against the Dark Arts (admittedly the professor in there was slightly dotty, but still!).

And then there was the full moon. He felt horrible for admitting it, but it was so wonderful to not have to fear the pain of the transformation, to not have to spend all his days counting down to the time where he would have to go through it once more. Or, at least it would have been.

It would have been if Sirius didn't have to endure it in his place. How could he look Sirius in the eye afterwards, knowing that he had made his friend go through that? Sirius would hate him for the agony he had experienced. Remus knew that if he couldn't switch their bodies back soon, he would lose Sirius as one of his best friends forever.

So wrapped up was Remus in his thoughts that he didn't notice that he wasn't the only one that couldn't sleep. It wasn't until Sirius slid down the wall so that he was in a sitting position beside him that Remus realised he wasn't the only one who had a lot on his mind.

"Hey," Sirius said softly.

"Can't sleep?" Remus asked. Sirius shook his head.

"You…you have quite a collection of scars…," Sirius said hesitantly. Remus looked down at his hands - unmarked hands, much unlike the ones of the body Sirius was currently in. He'd been so busy worrying about the full moon that he'd forgotten that his three friends had only ever caught the briefest glimpses of the evidence of his condition.

"I'm sorry they're so ugly," he muttered, still not looking at Sirius - who looked exactly like himself. He was only just managing to get used to the eeriness.

He was surprised when a hand entered his vision as Sirius gently grabbed his wrist.

"Hey, don't talk like that," Sirius chided. "They're not…they're not ugly. I don't think they make you ugly. I was just saying because they look painful. I never realised how many you have before."

"I try not to show you guys…," Remus said. He realised Sirius's hand was still resting on his arm.

"You shouldn't hide them, Remus," Sirius told him. His voice was intense - Remus had never heard it like that before. "They're a part of you, and we don't want you to be anyone _but _you."

They were quiet for a moment, and then Sirius' voice lightened. "Now get some sleep," he told the werewolf, pushing himself up from the cramped position, his voice taking on a lighter tone. "You have to rise bright and early tomorrow so you can dump my girlfriend."

* * *

><p>Remus, for what felt like the fiftieth time today, tripped on a stair and went sprawling across the floor, the books he was carrying flying everywhere. He groaned, partly in pain, and partly at the fact that picking them all up was going to be a major nuisance.<p>

It wasn't that Padfoot was uncoordinated - in fact, he was probably more coordinated than Remus himself. But Padfoot was taller, with longer legs and arms, and it was taking Remus an annoyingly long time to get accustomed to the difference.

"Are you okay?" the concerned voice came from somewhere above the werewolf's head. Remus couldn't see who it was as his face was still firmly planted in the hard stone floor. With another small groan of complaint, he looked up.

It was a boy in his year - from Ravenclaw, Remus thought. What was his name? Millagan? Mercroft? It was something starting with 'm'.

"Yeah, I'm fine thanks," Remus said, picking himself up slowly. "I'm not the most coordinated today."

"You're Black, right? Sirius Black?" The boy began to pick up Remus's scattered books.

It took Remus a while to remember that he wasn't in his own body, and that anyone who wasn't a Marauder wouldn't know that he was actually Remus. "Yeah," he said. "Sorry, I seem to have forgotten your name…"

"Bradley Faire." Okay, maybe not 'M'. "I'm in your Transfiguration and Charms classes."

"Oh, I remember you now," Remus lied. Bradley handed him a large pile of books.

"You have some interesting reading there," he said, nodding to a book titled _'Body Switching and How to Reverse It.' _"Awfully specific."

Remus blushed. "Yeah, I thought it looked interesting…."

Bradley grinned. "Right…."

His grin was infectious and Remus couldn't help smiling back. They began to walk down the corridor together, and soon they were chatting away like old friends, about inconsequential stuff like the next Hogsmeade trip and how Professor Kettleburn had just lost his arm in a dispute with a hippogriff. When they parted for their respective common rooms, Remus marvelled at how easy he had been to talk to.

He only wished that the boy didn't think he was Sirius.

* * *

><p>"Stop frowning, Padfoot. You're scaring my Lily-kins away."<p>

Sirius grunted.

"Stop glaring at _me_, Pads. You'll scare me away too."

Sirius grunted again.

"And then," James pronounced dramatically, not in the least put off by his friend's lack of response, "you'll have no friends on top of not having all the girls hanging off your every word any more."

Silence.

"Is that's what's bothering you? You're annoyed because Remus won't let you have a girlfriend?"

"No."

"Then what is it? Because seriously, Padfoot, you glaring in Moony's body is even scarier than when you glare in your own."

"I'm not _glaring_, James. I'm thinking."

"You are? Well, always a first time, I guess…. But Remus' face doesn't look so… strained, when he's thinking."

Sirius ignored the insult. "James…" he said tentatively. "What if…what if we don't find a way to reverse it before then next full moon?"

"What do you mean?" James asked sharply. "I'm sure we won't get expelled, if that's what you mean. I reckon if we go to Madam Pomfrey and tell her we were duelling or something she won't ask too many questions."

"No, that's not what I mean." Sirius seemed to struggle with words for a moment, before he asked hesitantly, "what if I'm still in Remus's body for the next full moon?"

"Oh," James said. He wasn't really sure what to say to that, mainly because he had no answers. "Are you scared?"

"What? No, that's not what I meant." Sirius frowned at James. "I meant…what if I just stay in Remus's body for a while? Then he wouldn't have to transform, and it would be as good as a cure. It would be even better than us becoming animagus."

"Are you mad?" James hissed. He would have shouted, but the common room was unusually full for a Sunday morning, and this was one conversation that James would rather not draw everyone's attention to. "You've seen Remus after his transformation! He looks like he's been to hell and back! He explained to us what happens when he transforms, Sirius - _his muscles tear themselves to pieces and then knit back together_! It's like taking a hundred times the correct dosage of skelegrow!"

Sirius looked as though he was about to interject, but James continued. "And what about the rest of the transformation? You will literally tear yourself to pieces in your desperation for human flesh! Do you really want to go through that?"

Sirius's eyes flashed dangerously. "That's what Remus goes through _every month_. Don't you think it would be worth it if he didn't have to, even just the once?"

James looked like he was going to retort violently, but he seemed to think about what Sirius said and sunk back into his chair. "You would take on Remus's suffering so he didn't have to endure it?" He asked in a low voice.

"Yes," Sirius said, without hesitation.

James paused. "Remus will never agree," he told Sirius finally. The boy shrugged.

"It's worth a try, isn't it?" he asked.

"Well he's over there if you want to give it a go," James said sceptically, nodding towards a corner in which Remus was huddled, blocked off from the common room by a wall of books higher than he was. Sirius nodded, and steeled his shoulders.

"Wish me luck, Prongs," he grinned at James, who just smiled in return.

As Sirius made his way over to the researching werewolf, James's eyes remained fixed on him, an extremely pensive look on his face.

He didn't look away until Sirius effectively hid himself from view by sitting behind the piles of books.

* * *

><p>"No."<p>

"But Moooooooony…."

"Absolutely not."

"But-"

"I said _no_, Sirius."

Sirius pouted, although the look was wasted - Remus didn't even glance up from the thick textbook he was skimming through. He slumped back down into the seat glumly.

"Why not?" He asked.

"Because." Remus stated simply, jotting down a page reference on a sheet of parchment he had at hand.

"Because whyyyyy?" Sirius asked, drawing out the 'why' like a child whining for sweets.

"Padfoot," Remus said seriously, finally taking the time to look up from his research. "My condition is not something I would wish upon my worst enemy. Why would I willingly allow it to be inflicted upon one of my best friends?"

"Because you wouldn't have to endure it."

The reply came out so smoothly and quickly that Remus wondered if Sirius hadn't practiced it. A quick glance at the dark-haired boy told Remus that his eyes were fixed intensely on the werewolves face.

"It's not worth it," Remus muttered.

"How do you mean? Sirius asked.

"I wouldn't have to go through it, but you would. It's not worth it."

"The way I see it," Sirius argued back, "it's extremely worth it. Remus, you have to go through the transformation every month. Wouldn't it be good to be free of that, even just the once?"

"And let you do it instead? I don't think so."

"Why not?" Sirius's voice was loud and demanding, and Remus looked anxiously around, afraid that it would draw the attention of other students. He needn't have worried. Even if they could be heard over the muffling wall of books, the mufflato charm that Sirius had cast prior to the beginning of the conversation seemed to be effective.

"How could I look at you the same afterwards, Sirius, knowing you had been through that and it was all my fault?" Remus's words were rushed, and his voice bitter. Sirius tired to interject, but Remus continued talking. "How could _you _look at _me _again? Every time you'd remember what you went through, you'd think of me and know that if you didn't know me, if you weren't friends with me, it never would have happened. You'll hate me for it."

"Remus…," Sirius whispered. The werewolf looked away, as though ashamed of his outburst.

"I'd never hate you, Remus. Never."

Remus let out a low barking laugh, something that suited Sirius's body but not the person in it. "You say that now, but afterwards…you'll think differently."

Without warning, Remus stood up. "Where are you going?" Sirius asked in surprise.

"Back to the corridor behind the mirror to look at the triangle," Remus said grimly. "None of these books are any help and it might be easier to reverse this if we know what we did wrong."

"I'll come with you," Sirius said hastily, standing up.

"No, I'll go on my own. If you want to be helpful you can take these books back up to the dorm. We can return them tonight."

And then Sirius was left there, surrounded by a pile of books he couldn't even pronounce the titles of.

"_I wonder if Remus would let me get away with just vanishing them,"_ he wondered.

* * *

><p>It was dinner before Remus reappeared again. James could have whooped in relief - Sirius had been moody since he had recounted his conversation with the werewolf. Now they could sort things out and Padfoot (disguised as Moony) could stop glaring ferociously enough to scare away Lily. Because, of course, she would be all over James if it weren't for him.<p>

But James did not whoop. He barely even managed to crack a relieved smile as Remus dropped two heavy, thick, complex-lookingbooks on the table. This was a bad sign, because usually when Remus did that it meant they had to actually do work. Peter seemed to be of the same mindset, because he looked at the heavy tomes like they had just mauled his cat and were now watching him predatorily as though they were about to do the same to him.

"I found it. It took me three bloody hours, but I found our mistake."

"Oh?" James said, more to be polite than because he actually wanted to know. "And what exactly did we do wrong?"

"The written part of the triangle. In Latin. Along one edge of the triangle. Someone wrote a wrong letter."

"A wrong _letter_? That's all?" James asked

Remus nodded gravely. "Yep. I keep trying to tell you guys, this is dangerous, advanced magic. We're lucky we only switched bodies - wizards have _died_ trying to become animagi."

He knew that the other Marauders took what they were trying to do far too lightly. Even Peter, who usually seemed much more aware of the consequences than Sirius and James, didn't really grasp how dangerous it was. The rat-like boy knew it was difficult - it was a lot more effort for him than it was for the other two - but he thought that was all there was to it.

"Does it help at all? Knowing what went wrong, I mean?" James asked. Remus shrugged.

"Not yet. But it could. I've searched this book for ways to fix spells that went awry," he gestured to the main book that they used for researching how to become an animagi. "But it hasn't been much good."

Sirius seemed about to say something, but at that moment Lily came striding over. James' face lit up as though Christmas had come early, but she ignored him.

"Remus," she said, addressing Sirius. Sirius looked surprised, and raised his eyebrow in a very Sirius-like way. Peter kicked it in the shin, and comprehension dawned on him.

"Oh, right, hi Eva- I mean, Lily," he said. Lily gave him a funny look.

"Can I borrow your transfiguration essay? I only just finished mine and I'm not sure that I defined the second law of elemental transfiguration correctly. I was hoping to cross-reference with yours."

"You could," Sirius said, "but I haven't done it." He winced as Peter kicked him in the shins again.

"Yes you have, Remus," the real Remus interjected. "You were doing it the other night, _remember_?" The 'remember' was highly emphasised, and came with a glare that told Sirius to play along or else.

"Oh yeah, right, I remember now. Sure you can borrow it. I'll give it to you when we get back to the common room."

Lily gave him a relieved look. "Thanks, Remus."

As soon as she'd walked away, James turned to Sirius. "I want to trade bodies with you. I want to be Remus."

"What?" Sirius said, confused. "Why?"

"Did you see?" James's eyes shone with excitement. "Lily actually _talks _to him!"

Back up in their dormitory, Remus suspiciously handed his completed essay over to Sirius.

"Remember, you have to act like me," he told the grinning boy sternly.

"Yes sir."

"That means not calling her Evans."

"Yes sir."

"And no waggling your eyebrows suggestively."

"What? Like this?"

"Yes, like that."

"Alright."

"And no slouching."

"Gotcha."

"No calling her 'love', or 'honey', or any other "affectionate" nickname."

"Right."

"And if she brings up Professor McGonagall, you call her 'Professor McGonagall'. Not Minnie, or McGoogles, or even just McGonagall. _Professor McGonagall_."

"Okay."

"Say it with me: Professor McGongall."

"Professor McGonagall. Really Remus, just let me go down and give her the damn essay. I think I can act enough like you to fool _Evans_."

"No, Sirius, not Evans. _Lily_. I call her Lily."

"Oh for Merlin's sake, James, please hex him for me before I do," Sirius appealed to his amused friend. James just shook his head.

"I think not. But just let him go down, Moony. He'll do fine."

"Alright. But come straight back up! Do not engage in extended conversation with her!"

"_Okay_, Moony. Chill," Sirius said as he began walking out the door.

"Oh, and Padfoot," James called out to his retreating back. "No asking Lily out!"

Remus whirled to face him. "Why would he do that?" he demanded.

"Well, think about it," James said logically. "Other than me, of course, the only person Lily would consent to go out with is you. She would never say yes to the _real _Sirius, but if she thought he was you… hey, where are you going?"

Remus was already halfway out the door by the time he answered. "To supervise!"


	2. Closets and Charades

**Chameleon Changes Chapter 2**

_Closets and Charades_

Monday morning was a very nerve-wracking time for Remus. He was aware that, as this was the first day with classes since what the Marauders had taken to calling "the Accident", it was a rather big day.

He found it more difficult that usual to get out of bed that morning, not in the least because Sirius was _not _an early riser by nature. It didn't help that he had been up half the night alternating between instructing Sirius on how to be more Remus-like and researching how to change them back.

"See," Sirius said smugly from where he perched, fully-dressed, on the end of the bed. "It's not so easy to get up in the morning when you're me. That'll teach you for waking me up so early all those times."

Only Remus's hatred of being late, and his desire to drill a few more rules into Sirius before class started, caused him to drag himself out of bed. He stumbled blearily around the room before he realised that the wall was _not _the door to the bathroom.

"Wow, Remus," James commented. "You're acting so much like Padfoot right now I could almost forget that you aren't."

And, of course, that was the other thing that was worrying Remus about today. Not only did he have to be on hand to prevent Sirius from ruining his reputation forever, but he had to act enough like Sirius to convince everyone that all was well with the Marauders.

But, no matter what, Remus absolutely _refused _to call Professor McGonagall "Minnie" to her face.

Other than that, Remus thought that he might just be able to pull off acting like Sirius with a stomach ache. As long he didn't answer any questions in class and hid behind James' boisterous shadow, he should be fine.

And it would be nice to take advantage of everyone thinking he was Sirius to take a little nap in class.

"Oh Remus," Sirius said casually as he returned from the bathroom. "Have you dumped my girlfriend yet?"

"Not yet," Remus admitted. He hadn't yet run into her as he'd spent much of the previous day in the library, and in the common room hiding behind stacks of books. It was such an un-Sirius thing to do with a Sunday that his girlfriend probably hadn't even thought of looking for him there.

"Well you sit with her in Divination. You can do it then."

Sirius was the only one of the Marauders who took Divination, due to the fact that James got kicked out in the second week when he used the crystal balls for Quidditch Practice. Peter, although he had been advised by anyone he spoke to _not_ to take Arithmancy, had, in a panic, chosen all the same subjects as Remus, with the theory that the werewolf could help him.

So it was with a sense of dread that Remus climbed to the top of the divination tower. He didn't even know who Sirius's girlfriend _was_! What if he didn't recognise her? What was her name again? He thought it was Gretel, but he could be wrong….

He needn't have worried about not knowing which girl she was. As soon as he had straightened up from clambering through the trapdoor, a large figure tackled him, taking him by surprise. He only just managed to keep himself from falling.

"Siri!" The girl said, wrapping her arms around his neck and planting a kiss on his cheek. "Where were you yesterday? I couldn't find you! I missed you!"

"Oh," Remus said blankly. "I was in the l-" he was about to say library, but then he realised that Sirius had probably never stepped into the library of his own free will in his life. Usually Remus had to drag him by his hair.

"I was in the lake," Remus corrected himself. "Swimming. Getting in a bit of exercise."

"But Siri," Gretel exclaimed. Remus was beginning to find her voice annoying, and they'd only been talking for half a minute. "There a G_rindylows _in there! And Merpeople and stuff!"

"They aren't so bad," Remus said. Then, striving to sound more like Sirius he added cockily, "It's nothing I can't handle."

Gretel was saved from answering (probably in some irritating, fawning manner, Remus thought) by the appearance of their teacher, who happened to be a short man with watery eyes and a nervous disposition.

"Alright class," he said. "Homework please."

Remus' stomach dropped and he began frantically shuffling through the books in his - no, Sirius' - bag. Gretel looked at him curiously.

"Did you do the homework, Siri?" she asked, her tone surprised.

"Oh…erm…no," Remus said when he discovered that Sirius _hadn't _done it. To his surprise, when the professor reached their table he passed right by it. "Isn't he going to ask for our homework?" a confused Remus asked. Gretel just laughed.

"Oh, you're so funny, Siri," she giggled. "Why would he bother when he knows we haven't done it?"

The rest of the lesson confirmed Remus' firm belief that Divination is a waste of time. He predicted that Gretel would be attacked by a dancing, singing stick, and was told in turn that he would know times of great woe after he died in 1974 - back in third year. So unless he went back in time, he figured it was a pretty safe bet that this didn't happen.

And he did manage to get some sleep - in the last half an hour when the teacher rambled on and on about the different positions of Jupiter and its importance in births.

All too soon it was the end of the lesson, and, as they made their way down the stairs, Gretel pulled him into a broom closet that Remus was sure hadn't been there on his way up, and, even if it had been, he didn't know why it was in such an out of the way place anyway.

He also wondered why it didn't have any brooms.

"What are you doing?" he asked as Gretel pulled the doors shut behind him and they were enveloped by blackness.

"Come on Siri," she purred. Seriously, _purred_. Remus didn't even know it was _possible _for humans to sound like that. "Don't play innocent. Let's have some fun."

"Um…actually…," Remus stuttered out, but he was cut off as Gretel's lips found his. It was a little hard to dump her when she had her tongue in his mouth.

Her hands began undoing his belt and he tried to pull away from her, only to find that she had him backed up against the closet wall. He pushed futilely at her shoulders, probably being too gentle because he didn't want to hurt her. She seemed to think that this meant he wanted to touch her too, because she grabbed his wrists and directed his hands to her…well…_considerable _bosom.

His eyes widened even further as her hands slunk their way into his pants. Instead of trying to fight her off (because that _clearly_ wasn't working), he fumbled with the door to the closet. Finally it swung open and Remus practically threw himself out into the bright corridor.

"Siri?" Gretel asked confused. "What's wrong?" Her breath was slightly laboured and the first few buttons on her top were undone (Remus assumed that she had done that herself because he certainly hadn't).

"Sorry Gretel," he said, making sure there was a suitable distance between the two of them. "But I can't do this."

"But we've done it before…," she said plaintively. Remus would have raised his eyebrows at the information if it weren't for the fact he was pretending to be Sirius.

"I know," he lied, "I don't mean that. I mean this relationship. It's not working. I think we should split up, and, you know…see other people."

He should have expected it. He really should have. But somehow it caught him by surprise when she burst into tears.

"Is there s-someone else?" She sobbed. "Are you s-seeing another g-girl?"

"No!" Remus exclaimed. "No! That's not it at all!"

"Then why?" she exclaimed, launching herself at him and sobbing into this shoulder. Remus awkwardly patted her back.

"I just need to clear my head for a bit. Some time without a relationship. It's not you, it's me." This just made her cry harder. He wasn't an expert at breakups by any means, but Remus thought that this was not how they usually went. Didn't the girl usually find someone else's shoulder to cry on?

* * *

><p>Remus was late for Transfiguration. He gave some offhand excuse to Professor McGonagall about losing track of the time, and she gave him a detention. He almost groaned audibly - just what he needed; even less time to find out how to solve this predicament.<p>

"Your shoulder's wet," Sirius told him offhandedly, as he successfully transfigured his rabbit into a hat. Remus glared at him.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, my shoulder is wet. Because of your girlfriend. I have a detention. Because of your girlfriend. I was almost…deflowered. Because of your girlfriend."

James and Peter, who had been listening in, snickered. "Deflowered?" James asked, and Remus got the feeling he was questioning his choice of language rather than enquiring as to what happened.

"I thought you were going to dump her, not shag her," Sirius teased.

"I did dump her. Hence the shoulder," he gestured to the wet patch Sirius had pointed out. "But before I could do that, she cornered me in a broom closet. I only just managed to escape."

"Escape? Geez Moony, a girl throws herself at you and all you can think of is getting away?" James asked. "What are you? Gay?

"Well, seeing as otherwise he would have been shagging her in my body, I can only be glad that Moony lacks any sort of libido," Sirius drawled. "But I'm with James. You need to loosen up, Moony."

"I need to do no such thing," Remus told Sirius indignantly. "And just because I respect girls too much to use them as nothing more than sex objects, particularly while they think I'm someone else, does not make me gay."

"Speaking of gay," Peter, who had been quietly enjoying the entertainment up to this point, piped up. "And shagging, did you hear that that blond Ravenclaw boy who beat you all in Transfiguration last year was caught shagging some seventh-year Slytherin."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "What's the big deal? People get caught shagging all the time. That's not exciting. Unless he was caught by Dumbledore. Peter, please tell me he was caught by Dumbledore!" Sirius was struggling not to giggle at just the thought.

"No, he wasn't caught by Dumbledore. But the Slytherin was that really good keeper that James knocked out last year. What's his name? Westwood?"

"Which blond?" James asked, peering around the classroom. Peter pointed to a boy in the corner, who Remus recognised as Bradley Faire.

"Bradley's gay?" Remus asked, at the same time that Sirius said, "Faire's gay?"

Three pairs of eyes turned to Remus. "Bradley?" James asked mockingly, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. "On first-name terms with him, are you Remus?"

"I dropped a pile of books yesterday and he helped me pick them up," Remus muttered. "So it's really Sirius who's on first-name terms."

"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed in a whisper. "You told me not to pick up a girlfriend while I'm in this body! That means you can't pick me up boyfriends!"

"I didn't pick you up a boyfriend," Remus told him. "And I'm not gay."

"I bet "Bradley" would beg to differ," Peter muttered to James. Remus just glared at him.

* * *

><p>The next few days weren't too much trouble, once Remus learned to fend of Sirius' rabid fan-girls, and fought the urge to do Sirius' homework. He had even more trouble getting Sirius to do <em>his<em>. Eventually they compromised; Remus would do "Remus'" homework and put his real name on it so that Sirius could hand it in, and in turn he would only make Sirius do "Sirius'" homework when it was necessary in order to avoid detentions and other major trouble.

No major disasters had happened by the time Remus traipsed out of his detention (dissecting fish guts for Slughorn) on Wednesday night. And, although Remus had no major progress in finding a cure, he thought that just maybe they could continue to fool everyone until they went to the teachers.

After that, he only hoped they didn't get expelled for it.

* * *

><p>Thursday morning was when things really started to get troublesome, when Remus woke up from a rather…pleasant…dream. He couldn't remember it, but he knew it was pleasant due to the small problem between his legs. Well, actually, the problem was that it wasn't as small as it should be.<p>

Usually, morning wood wouldn't be an issue at all. He generally woke up well before the others, and could quietly take care of it behind the curtains surrounding his bed. He knew the others all did it too - they were a dorm full of hormonal teenage boys; it was a no-brainer.

However, he had yet to encounter this problem while in Sirius's body. There was something very taboo about "dealing with it" when it wasn't _his _thing he was dealing with. He wondered if Sirius had struck that problem yet.

'_Horny mutt probably wouldn't care about things such as privacy,' _he thought grumpily.

Nor could he sneak into the bathroom to have a cold shower because, by the sounds of it, he had once again woken up later than he usually did (damn Sirius's inability to get up early) and someone else was already in the bathroom.

A quick glance at his clock told him he didn't have time to lie there and wait for it to go away.

He quickly surmised that he had two choices. Either he could get dressed and ignore his hard-on, hoping that no one else would notice when he emerged from behind the curtains, or he could "deal with it".

He refused to think the word 'masturbate'. It just felt wrong when he remembered with whose body he would be masturbating.

And as much as he'd rather just ignore the morning wood until it went away, the other Marauders would never let him live it down if they realised he had a boner in Sirius's body. Oh, he could just imagine the jokes James would make….

That only left him with one alternative. He squeezed his eyes shut as he reached down between his legs, thinking that if he didn't look it would be less weird.

After the first couple of strokes Remus could forget that it was Sirius's cock he was rubbing. Although it felt different, it wasn't so strange that he couldn't put it out of his mind. But eventually he got curious. He wriggled quickly out of his pyjama pants and lifted up the covers. _'It's not like I'm watching Sirius do this, or anything,' _he reasoned, as he opened his eyes.

It was a strange sight, to be sure, almost erotic (not that Remus would admit that). Remus watched his (Sirius') hand move up and down over Sirius' hardened erection. He almost forgot that there were others in the dormitory and he couldn't make any noise - he caught the moan that almost escaped his mouth just in time.

He was pleased to note that he was slightly bigger than Sirius, although he thought the animagus might be a bit thicker. Pearly drops of pre-cum leaked from the sensitive head (Remus knew it was sensitive because he ran his thumb over it and almost cried out).

The sight had made Remus harder than before and he knew he wouldn't last long. All too soon, he was bucking up lightly into his hand as white liquid spurted onto his clothed stomach.

He bit his lip to muffle any noises he might make as he reached his release, and not a moment too soon.

"Come on Moony!" James called out to Remus as he was reaching for the tissues. "Just because you're Sirius doesn't mean you get to laze around!"

"Alright!" Remus called back. He was going to say 'I'm coming', but changed his mind when he considered the appropriateness of it. "I'll be there soon."

* * *

><p>No one else seemed to notice the awkwardness Remus felt at breakfast, which was good because, honestly, what would he have said if they asked him about it? Instead he got away with focusing intensely on his cereal to avoid looking Sirius in the eye.<p>

He wondered if Sirius had done _that_ in his body yet.

'_Not that it matters,_' he thought hurriedly. _'And even if he has, I _don't _want to know.' _

"Hurry up Moony," James told Remus impatiently. "You're taking to long."

"Stop complaining," Remus told him. "And don't call me Moony. Call me Sirius or Padfoot."

James rolled his eyes. "Why? It's not like anyone's listening except us."

"That's not the point," Remus chastised severely. "Sometime someone _will_ be passing by, and they'll hear you call me Remus. It's a little suspicious, don't you think?"

James shrugged uncaringly. "How much longer will you two be like this anyway? It's confusing and annoying. Are you any closer to figuring out how to change yourselves back?"

Remus shook his head dejectedly. "Nope. I'm going to the library before class, and I'll skip divination in second period, but in two days time, if I haven't found anything, I'm going to McGonagall." Remus, finally finishing his breakfast, stood up.

James went to open his mouth to say that they should just keep it to themselves and not involve the teachers, but Peter kicked him under the table. After Remus had left and the three Marauders had begun walking back to the tower to get their things for the day, James glared at him. "What was that for?" he demanded.

Peter shrugged. "You won't change his mind. And isn't it better to let him get on with researching than wasting time arguing about it?"

James shrugged again. Why was everyone ordering him about today? First Remus, and now Peter. To take his mind off it, he turned to Sirius. "What's with you, Pa- I mean, Moony?" He asked, correcting himself quickly as he remembered what Remus had said. He had to admit, he saw the werewolf's logic in it as a second year, well within earshot, bustled past.

"Nothing," Sirius said, somewhat snappishly.

James raised an eyebrow elegantly. "Remus doesn't usually bite in the mornings," he told Sirius, taking on a very matronly voice. "Use a more pleasant tone, and full sentences. And stop hunching your shoulders. Remus walks with a straight back." He grinned at Sirius to show he was joking.

"Piss off, Prongs," Sirius said, glaring at his best friend. Once again, James thanked Merlin that the real Remus didn't use that expression all that often. It was rather intimidating. _'Perhaps it's best to not tell Sirius that, though,' _he thought.

"I'd really rather not," James replied. "Are you suffering withdrawal symptoms from lack of feminine contact?"

Sirius glared even harder. "No, believe it or not, I can last four days without a girlfriend, thanks very much."

"His counting of the days says otherwise," Peter whispered to James.

"It's that Faire kid," Sirius said grumpily, ignoring Peter's snide comment. James looked surprised. "I don't like how he's looking at Remus."

"What do you mean, 'how he's looking'?" James asked, confused. "He seemed to be looking at him pretty normally if you ask me."

"Well I didn't ask you," Sirius said. "And trust me; he's got eyes for our Moony."

"Well actually," Peter pointed out, grinning. "Seeing as he thinks Remus is you, Faire's actually got eyes for our Padfoot."

Sirius didn't appreciate the joke, and James was too busy looking at Sirius intensely to laugh. He couldn't help noticing that the animagus seemed more worried about the fact that someone was interested in Remus, rather than that person thinking they were interested in Sirius.

Sirius noticed James' look. "What?" He asked self-consciously. James just shook his head.

"Nothing. Come on, if we get our things quickly, we can stop by and pick Remus up from the library before Transfiguration."

* * *

><p>If anything could have better confirmed Sirius' suspicions, it was picking Remus up from the library.<p>

"What is it? What can you see? What are they doing?" Peter asked. "I can only see their feet."

James, Sirius and Peter were peering at Remus through the bookshelves. Unfortunately for Peter, they were in a part of the library where the books were almost the size of the shelves, and were quite closely stacked, meaning there was not many gaps to see through.

"Shush," Sirius snapped at him. "They're just talking. But why are they in the library together? Do you think they planned this? Like a secret rendezvous?"

"I doubt that, Pads," James said dryly. "I think it might actually be because both Moony and Faire like books."

"And libraries," added Peter.

"But why's he _talking _to him?" Sirius complained. "Even if Moony _is _gay, he could do much better than Faire."

"Oh?" James said sceptically. "What's wrong with Faire? And how many other gay boys do you know in this place for Remus to date?"

"Everything's wrong with Faire!" Sirius exclaimed, almost forgetting to whisper. The other two shushed him quickly. "He's a Ravenclaw, he's nerdy, he likes books - he came to a library before _class_, for Merlin's sake!"

"So did Remus," Peter pointed out.

"That's different," Sirius insisted. "Remus had to, to find out how to change us back."

James and Peter looked at each other, wondering which of them would be the one to inform Sirius that Remus came to the library before class four days out of five, regardless of whether he had a problem that needed solving or not.

"Remus looks happy enough," James said finally. "Do you think we should just leave the two of them to it?"

"No!" Sirius exclaimed, too loudly. A Hufflepuff girl sitting at a table near them looked up from her reading in surprise. "No. He might do something inappropriate to Moony."

Peter wondered whether he should tell his two arguing best friends that Remus, judging from the annoyed look on his face and the way his eyes kept flicking over to where they were hiding, knew they were there.

"I really doubt that, Padfoot. I know it's your body and all, but Remus is allowed to make friends other than us."

Sirius looked surprised at the revelation. "By Merlin, that's right. It's my body he's picking up a boyfriend in!"

James wondered how he could forget that, but he didn't have time to ponder over it, as he and Peter had to promptly grab Sirius to stop him from marching out from behind the bookshelf.

"No Sirius," James told the other boy. "Look! They're leaving now, anyway!"

"Come on," Sirius said, pulling free of the other two. "Let's follow them."

* * *

><p>Their stalking was cut short by their arrival at the Transfiguration classroom. Sirius wasn't sure whether he was disappointed or relieved that nothing else had happened.<p>

Remus was already sitting down when they made their way into the classroom, and all three of them tried not to look too guilty. To Sirius' relief, Faire was sitting on the other side of the classroom, well away from Remus.

"Enjoy yourselves, did you?" Remus asked, annoyed, as soon as they sat down. Only Sirius pretended to be innocent.

"What are you talking about, Moony?"

"Don't call me Moony," Remus said, and for a second Sirius thought he was _really_ mad to not let Sirius call him by his nickname. But then he realised he was just reminding them that still had to convince everyone that they were each other. "And I saw you, behind the bookshelves, watching me and Brad."

Sirius knew Remus wasn't happy with him, and that he was in dangerous territory, but when he heard the werewolf call Faire 'Brad', he couldn't help what he said next.

"It's 'Brad' now, is it?" He asked acidly. "Not Faire? Not Bradley? _Brad_?"

Remus glared. "Yes. Brad."

Peter and James watched with wide eyes as the argument began to heat up.

"Are you two getting _close_?" Sirius mocked. "He thinks you're me, remember. It'll all end in tears when this is over. He thinks he knows _me_, and to him, you'll be a complete stranger."

All the time this had been going on in a hushed whisper in the back corner, McGonagall had been giving the class instructions. As Sirius said his last sentence, knowing that he had gone too far even as the words came spilling out of his mouth, she told the class to pair up. Chairs began scraping as people got up to find a partner, and Remus just looked at Sirius, the expression in his eyes too complex to read.

"You're such an _ass_, sometimes," he said, only half-whispering. Then he stood up abruptly and walked to the other side of the room, where he tapped Faire on the shoulder and asked him something.

Sirius didn't miss the way Faire's face lit up when he saw it was Remus asking to be his partner.

* * *

><p>In the end, Sirius ended up partnering up with one Miss Lily Evans (causing James to shoot Sirius jealous looks every two minutes), as Snape was sick and she was still under the mistaken impression that he was Remus. Sirius was too busy watching Faire and Moony angrily to care, or even to bother, about trying to keep up the pretence.<p>

They were doing human transfiguration - transfiguring small parts of each other's anatomies, such as eyebrows and noses.

"Sirius," Lily said impatiently. "If you're going to spend your turn at the transfiguration staring at Remus, at least let me have a go at changing your hair colour or something."

Sirius grunted and waved his hand, which Lily took as a sign for her to do whatever she liked. It was three hair-colour changes and three minutes later that Sirius realised what she had said.

"Wait, did you just call me Sirius?" he asked.

Lily grinned. "You're a bit slow today, aren't you?"

"And you called-" Sirius paused for a moment, in an attempt to not say anything incriminating. "You called Sirius Remus."

"Oh drop the act," she scolded. "You think I wouldn't notice that one of my best friends was replaced with _you_?"

Sirius wasn't sure to be insulted that she thought so little of both him and his acting skills, or worried that she knew.

"Evans," he said seriously, pleased to be reverting back to her last name. It had been difficult to remember to call her Lily all the time. "You can't tell _anyone_, understand? Please, for Remus."

Lily rolled her eyes. "How stupid do you think I am?" she demanded. "Whatever you did to switch yourselves around, I highly doubt it was _allowed_. I don't want Remus expelled any more than you yourself want to be expelled. Although," she added, "if it were just you and Potter, I would have no issue reporting it."

Sirius grinned. There was the Evans he knew and tolerated. "Right you are. We probably will have to tell the teachers eventually," he said, flicking his wand and turning Lily's hair blue. "Remus is having trouble finding a way to fix this."

"Hm," Lily said thoughtfully. "What's the date today?"

With the casualty of her tone, she could have been asking about the weather, but what she said made Sirius stiffen. _'Does she know?' _He wondered. _'Remus never mentioned telling her. Has she figured it out?' _Even if Sirius and Remus were fighting, the last thing wanted was for Moony's secret to be out.

"You have it at the top of your notes," he told Lily stiffly. She looked down and laughed lightly.

"So I do," she said. "I must have forgotten."

She went to say something, but she was drowned out by chairs scraping against the floors as everyone rose from their seats, signalling the end of class. Sirius blinked, surprised - he hadn't realised how fast the time had gone.

"Well good luck getting back to normal," Lily said as she swung her bag over her shoulder. Sirius just nodded absently as he caught sight of Remus walking out the door with Faire.

"And Sirius," Lily said, turning back to him. He looked at her. "If you get any more jealous," she said, a mischievous twinkle in her eye, "you should be careful. You might _actually_ turn green."

And with that, she disappeared out the door.


	3. Conflictions and Comfort

**Chameleon Changes Chapter 3**

_Confliction and Comfort_

It was second period, and Remus was supposed to be in Divination. But he had more important things to do than gaze hopelessly into a crystal ball - things like working out how to get his body back.

He had initially been very happy when Brad had offered to accompany him - the Ravenclaw had a free period - but the werewolf was starting to think it may have been more of a curse than a blessing. Despite the urgency that prompted him to skip class, he couldn't seem to concentrate on what he was reading.

Conflict and turmoil were doing somersaults in Remus' stomach as he watched Brad's eyes flicker from one side of the page to the other, pausing to tuck his blond hair (just long enough to get in his eyes) back behind his ear. As if sensing Remus' gaze on him, he looked up and smiled at the werewolf.

Ignoring the way his stomach did a back-flip, Remus smiled back at him and returned his eyes to his book, although he had long since given up trying to read the words.

Why was he reacting to Brad's every move like this? He wasn't this way around Sirius, or James, or Peter, or even Lily. He was acting like he had a crush.

And he didn't. He didn't have a crush on Bradley Faire. He wasn't gay. Just because he'd never liked a girl didn't mean he had to fall head over heels for the first non-Marauding boy that looked at him twice.

And so what if watching himself touch Sirius' cock had made him a little aroused? It didn't mean he was gay.

Then why couldn't he look Brad in the eye without his legs turning to jelly?

* * *

><p>As it turned out, it didn't matter that Remus wasn't getting anywhere, as ten minutes into their library session, a panting Sirius burst through the library doors and practically skidded to a halt in front of Remus.<p>

"Sirius, I need a word," Sirius said. Remus looked surprised.

"S-Remus, what are you doing here?" He asked, catching himself just in time. "And why are you skipping my- I mean your - Arithmancy class?"

"It's important. Can we talk in private?"

Remus sighed and looked apologetically at Brad, who smiled. "It's fine," the blond boy said.

"Sorry," Remus said, as he followed Sirius behind a bookcase.

He turned to the other boy and frowned. "What do you want?" He snapped.

"Lily knows," Sirius said instantly. Remus raised an eyebrow.

"Knows that we switched bodies?" he asked. Sirius nodded.

"Oh. What did she say?"

"That she wouldn't tell."

"Well then, it's fine, isn't it?" Remus said, his tone of voice annoyed. "You didn't need to rush over here and tell me."

Sirius opened his mouth and then closed it. Moony was still mad at him. "I think she knows you're a werewolf, too," he said.

That got Remus' attention. "What did she say?" He snapped. Sirius shrugged.

"When we were talking about us switching bodies, she asked what the date was, and she was pretending to be casual. What if she was asking so that she could work out how far away the next full moon was?"

Remus relaxed a little, but the frown remained. "I think you're reading too much into this, Padfoot," he told him.

"But Moony-"

Remus cut him off. "Don't worry about it. Now go back to class and I'll keep trying to find out how to change us back before this weekend."

He turned to leave, but Sirius' voice stopped him.

"Moony, I'm sorry for what I said," Padfoot said. Remus hesitated, but he didn't turn back.

"Why should you be?" he asked, his voice hard. "You were only saying the truth."

xXx

When Remus left the library, his thoughts were no less tumultuous. He had, however, decided one thing.

"James," he said, sitting down next to him as they began lunch. James, who was too busy staring at Lily to listen, ignored him.

"James!" Remus said, louder this time, giving him a small shake for good measure.

James snapped out of his daydream, turning to face Remus. "Her eyes are as beautiful as the ocean," he told the werewolf seriously.

"Yes, yes, very good," Remus said impatiently, not even needing to ask what James was talking about. "But on to more important matters-"

"Uh-oh, now you've done it…," Peter muttered to Remus.

"More important matters? _More _important matters? _More important matters?"_James seemed outraged. "Moony, nothing is more important than my Lily-flower. She is the reason the sun shines. She is the reason there are birds and butterflies. She is the reason I breathe air, the reason I can even grace you with my presence-"

"She didn't really do us any favours then, did she?" Peter quipped. Sirius, who was sitting quietly next to him, snickered.

"Lily is lovely, James," Remus assured the besotted boy. "But for now, can we concentrate on our current predicament? Such as the fact that I am not going to find a way to fix us by Saturday, and I'm going to tell Professor McGonagall what's happened this afternoon."

That took James' mind off of Lily.

"What?" He gasped. "Remus, you can't. We have to keep looking. Have you tried the restricted section?"

"Yes, I have," Remus said. "Many times. Look, James, we're a bunch of sixth years who are looking for the solution to a problem that is well beyond NEWT level."

"We've come so far with our animagus transformations-" James began, but Remus cut him off.

"Yes, but it's taken you half a decade. We don't have five years, Padfoot, we have eight days. Eight days, and Sirius turns into a werewolf."

"We can do it-"

"No, we can't. We have to tell the teachers. The more time they have, the more chance they can fix this."

"If we just wait-"

"James." Remus' voice was firm in a way it had never been before, and James fell silent.

"I know you think we can fix this, but we really can't. I'm going to go to McGonagall tonight after class, with or without you three."

James was quiet for a minute, and then he smiled. "Alright Moony," he said. "We'll be going with you, of course. But let's make a compromise."

Remus regarded James with suspicion. "What?" He asked.

"Let's go see Madam Pomfrey instead."

* * *

><p>It really was a good idea, Remus realised. Madam Pomfrey never asked questions - which had been handy for the Marauders on many occasions. Remus often thought that the Matron would rather that students trusted her to be discrete and come to her for help rather than try to fix their problems themselves and get hurt or make things worse. Mind you, Remus wasn't sure exactly what he was going to say to her this time.<p>

"You're telling me that you-" she gestured to Remus in Sirius' body, "-are actually Mr. Lupin, and you-" she gestured to Sirius in Remus' body, "-are Mr. Black?"

James nodded. "Yeah. We were practicing some advanced transfiguration spells, and they went wrong."

Madam Pomfrey looked at them suspiciously. "Remus," she said, turning to Sirius' body. "If this really is you, you'll be able to tell me the main ingredients for _Bluebell's Severe Injuries and Blemishes Balm_."

Remus frowned. _Bluebell's _was not something used on normal injuries as it was very effective, powerful, and often unnecessary, where a wave of Madam Pomfrey's wand usually did the trick. However, it was often applied to his injuries after the full moon due to its effectiveness at treating werewolf bites.

"Erm…beeswax," he said. That was the one he could always smell. "Essence of Lavender." He could smell that too. The others…what were the ones she had listed to him a few months ago?

"Yes, there are three more," Madam Pomfrey told him.

"Honeybell nectar and crushed armadillo claws," he said, "and… um… garlic cloves?"

Madam Pomfrey's mouth twitched. "It's actually garlic skins, but close enough," she informed him. "And just as a precaution…," she turned to Sirius.

"When Anthony Baxter charmed you rainbow colours, what did you say you thought the purple spot on your leg looked like?"

"Professor McGonagall's hair," Sirius answered promptly. The matron smiled briefly, before she became serious again.

"This is going to be very hard to reverse," she informed them. "No simple transfiguration spell could do this. We're going to need to see Professor McGonagall."

"Can't you fix them without telling her?" James protested. The matron shook her head.

"This is very advanced magic. I don't know what you boys were trying to do, but it's going to be hard to reverse it. Peter, be a dear and go fetch her, will you?"

Peter nodded and left. Madam Pomfrey didn't scare him as much as the other staff - due to their many accidents, as well as their visits to Remus after the full moon each month, all the Marauders were well acquainted with her.

Professor McGonagall was in her office, and it didn't take Peter long to find her.

"Professor?" He asked, knocking lightly on her door. "Madam Pomfrey wants to see you."

She sighed wearily. "What have you boys done _now_?" She asked as she rose from her chair.

* * *

><p>Remus shivered as Professor McGonagall waved her wand and the sensation of being drenched in icy water washed over him. She waved her wand again and, beside him, Sirius had the same reaction.<p>

She pursed her lips. "This isn't like any spell I've ever seen," she told the matron. "Have you ever encountered it, Poppy?"

Madam Pomfrey shook her head.

"And you say that you were attempting advanced transfiguration spells?" She asked of Sirius and Remus suspiciously. They both nodded.

"May I ask which ones?"

"We don't remember," Sirius cut in before Remus could speak. As convincing as Remus' knowledge of advanced transfiguration spells might be, it would be all too easy to prove that they were lying. "We can't remember much about what happened. It's just a bit of a blur, to be honest."

He smiled charmingly at her. She ignored him and turned to Remus.

"Mr Lupin," she appealed, "surely you, at least, understand more of the consequences of us not being able to solve this problem by…," she cast a wary glance at the other three boys, and changed what she was going to say. "Within a certain timeframe."

"I do, Professor," he told her seriously. She frowned.

"Perhaps you and I should talk about this more in private," she suggested. Remus saw where this was going.

"James, Sirius and Peter know that I'm a werewolf," he told her. "Anything you wish to say can be said in front of them."

The teacher's mouth went paper thin. "Well," she said, attempting not to show that she had been taken by surprise, "as pleased as I am to know that you have such accepting friends, you must realise what will happen if we can't fix this by the next full moon."

"I realise, Professor," he said. He did - they would never have even gone to a teacher for help if it hadn't been for the danger that Sirius might end up turning into a werewolf. "Can you fix us by then?"

"Not without knowing how you got into this situation," she informed them tartly. "I _must_ know what you did to manage to do this to yourself."

"We don't remember what spells we used," Remus said, most convincingly. "If I could tell you, I would."

"Mr Lupin." Professor McGonagall had lost patience. Her voice was so severe that Remus doubted even Peeves would be able to keep a smile on his face. "I do not believe it was a simple spell at all - this looks more like the work of an incantation, or a series of incantations, gone wrong. If it _was _a spell, I _must know which one_."

Sirius interrupted, worried that Remus would crack. Of all of them, he was the one who was most eager to get back into his original body before the full moon - although why, Sirius couldn't fathom. He finally got the chance to go a full moon without transforming, and Sirius knew that if it had been him, he would have jumped at the opportunity.

"We honestly can't remember, Professor," he said sincerely. "And, if you don't mind, can we go down to dinner? If we don't, we'll miss it, and I'm starving." As he said it, his stomach gave a loud growl to prove his point.

"Very well," McGonagall said, through pursed lips. "But I want you to come to my office _immediately _afterwards. I shall have Professor Slughorn meet us there."

"Slughorn? Why him?" James asked. James didn't particularly like the potions teacher - although he had been invited to the "Slug Club" along with Sirius back in second year (probably due to his Quidditch talent and his family name), when he had asked if Remus and Peter could come along, Slughorn had politely said no. James was most displeased, especially when Sirius asked if just Peter could come along, and Slughorn had reluctantly agreed to let the rat-like boy attend.

Since then, James had had quite a grudge against the "pompous, good for nothing, biased, egotistical bigot". It was clear that, even though Remus had impeccable grades and was quite possibly the brightest in his year, Slughorn would not accept him into the Slug Club because he was a werewolf.

"That's _Professor _Slughorn, Mr Potter," Professor McGonagall said pointedly. "And, seeing as you won't tell us how exactly this happened, we can't rule out that you were messing around with potions."

"And where would we brew a potion?" James demanded. Remus and Peter shared a look. James' acting skills were really rather good, perfected by years of claiming that it wasn't him who put fireworks in his cousin's bed, and the cat had got up that tree by itself, thank you very much, and that it wasn't his fault that the tree with the cat up it had just magically levitated itself off the ground. However, this claim of innocence might have worked better had every teacher in Hogwarts not known for a fact that the Marauders had used potions for many of their various pranks.

"I'm sure you'd find a way," Professor McGonagall said. "Now off to dinner with you. Remember, my office afterwards."

* * *

><p>"You know, something tells me she wasn't fooled," Sirius commented as they made their way to the Great Hall. James and Peter laughed.<p>

"We never had a chance of fooling her," Remus said gravely. "The best we can hope for is that she can find a cure without knowing exactly what we've done."

"Do you think she can?" Peter asked worriedly. James and Sirius were silent as they waited for Remus' reassurances. It didn't come.

"Of course she can," Sirius said after a moment of silence. Casually, he slung his arm around Peter's shoulder. "And we all know that Minnie doesn't _really _need Ol' Sluggy to tell her that we weren't using a potion. She was probably just getting lonely."

Peter and Remus, who had heard enough of Sirius' theories on which teachers were "doing kinky syuff" together, just ignored him, but James, who never failed to rise to the bait, said loud enough for three passing second years to hear, "For the last time Padfoot, McGonagall and Slughorn are _not having sex!" _

* * *

><p>The four boys sat at the table after dinner, trying to pretend that they were still eating. None of them were looking forward to <em>another <em>interrogation about how they had got into this mess, and were therefore procrastinating for as long as possible. Even Remus, who was most eager for the teachers to fix the problem as soon as possible, didn't really want to move.

He was about to say to the others that they couldn't stay there for much longer, and suggest that they should start to leave the great hall seeing as they were one of the last ten people in there, when he caught sight of a familiar head of blond hair. Despite his recent conflicting feelings about the Ravenclaw, that he had managed to put aside during such a stressful day, he smiled at the sight of Brad making his way over to them.

"Hey Sirius," Brad said, as he casually leaned on the table besides Remus. The name was just another unpleasant reminder that Brad didn't know it was really him, but he pushed such misgivings aside.

"Erm… hi. Can I help you with something?" Remus wasn't sure why Brad was here, although he was pleased that he was. He also didn't miss the glares that Sirius was sending his friend.

"Well, yeah actually…," Brad smiled at Remus rather nervously, and the werewolf realised that he was shifting uncomfortably. What was the boy so uneasy about? Patiently, Remus waited.

"I…," Brad seemed to trail off, and Remus became uncomfortably aware that their conversation had an extremely attentive audience. He shot pointed stares at his three friends. Only James and Peter looked away.

"You?" Remus prompted.

"I was… I was wondering if you'd like to come to Hogsmeade with me this Wednesday?" Brad asked. His face was unusually red, and he couldn't seem to meet Remus' eyes. Remus blinked. Was he asking him out on a _date_?

"Don't we have class?" Remus asked stupidly. Brad shook his head, still not meeting his eyes.

"Halloween," he muttered. "They're giving us the day off, for some reason."

"Oh," Remus said stupidly.

He wasn't sure what to say. He really would like to spend the day with Brad, but would the boy take it the wrong way? Remus wasn't even sure that he _was _gay. And besides, Brad still thought he was Sirius.

Funnily enough, it was Sirius' interjection that made up his mind.

"He can't," Sirius said shortly. "He's coming to Hogsmeade with us."

"Oh…," Brad said. Remus blinked.

"Hold up a minute," he said, turning to Sirius. "I never agreed to that."

"No, but you always do," Sirius informed him.

Remus frowned. "So?" He asked. "I'm sure you guys can go without me for this one time."

"What? So you'd rather go with _him-_" Sirius gestured to Brad, "-than come with us?" He said it with a sneer in his voice, as though the concept was unimaginable.

"Yes, actually, I would," Remus snapped back. He turned to Brad and smiled. "Thank you, Brad, I'd love to go to Hogsmeade with you. What time should we meet?"

"Oh… um…," Brad stuttered. "I'm not sure. Can I get back to you?"

"Of course."

Brad didn't seem to know what to do with himself now. "Right. Thanks. Great. I'd better be going…," and with that, he turned and walked out of the hall, narrowly avoiding tripping over a table.

Sirius glared at him. "Happy now?"

Remus glared right back. "Yes, actually, I am. Now I'm going to see Professor McGonagall so she can get me out of your damn body. I can't wait for it to be over."

James and Peter stared open-mouthed, rather surprised by the goings on. Throughout the time the two had been in each other's body, the only thing that Remus had ever had a problem with was that Sirius might end up transforming into a werewolf. It goes to show how angry he was that he voiced his dislike of being in Sirius' body.

"I just have one question," Peter said. "Does that mean that Remus has a boyfriend?"

Sirius glared at Peter and stalked out after Remus. James waited until he had left the great hall before shrugging.

"I don't know Pete…."

* * *

><p>"If you send them by my office on Sunday, Minerva, I can give them a potion that will let me know if this is a side effect of something they have concocted. Unfortunately it must brew overnight for a part of it, and there is also the time it will take to make it on top of that."<p>

"Thank you, Horace. Two nights is sooner than I could have hoped for, and your speed is appreciated given the… circumstances."

Remus and Sirius might as well have not been in the room. After a quick look at the two boys and McGonagall's assurances that this was not some kind of joke and that the boys actually _had _switched bodies, Slughorn had immediately begun ignoring them as he discussed the situation with McGonagall.

With a final nod, Slughorn swept out of the room, and McGonagall turned to Remus and Sirius. She looked wearier than either of them had ever seen her (and that was saying something, seeing as she frequently looked like she would like to give up on them after many of their pranks).

"Well, that's that," she said. "We can't do anything but wait."

Remus wanted to assure her once more that the potion was totally unnecessary, and that they _had _been fooling around with spells, but he knew it was useless. Unless they told her exactly what they had been doing, she would never believe them. And they couldn't tell her; Remus wasn't sure exactly how much trouble the other Marauders would be in for attempting to become unregistered animagi, but he guessed it would be quite a lot.

Still, it might be worth it if it meant that Sirius didn't have to transform. And every day that they wasted was less time to find a cure. Not to mention that they might not be able to reverse the effects at all if they didn't tell McGonagall what they had been doing.

"What happens if you can't fix this by the next full moon?" Remus asked, finally accepting that it might happen. There might not be a miracle cure available to fix what was undoubtedly their biggest mistake so far. The teachers, as brilliant as they were, might not be able to help them this time.

Professor McGonagall pursed her lips. "We have no way of knowing whether the spell or potion has transformed your appearances or whether you have actually switched bodies. If it is the mere case that your image has been warped, then you will transform as normal." She nodded to Remus. "But if your bodies have stayed the same, and your consciousnesses are actually in the other person, then it will be your body that transforms, and Mr. Black's consciousness with it."

Her voice was grave, and Remus knew that she, unlike the other Marauders, realised how important it was for this not to happen.

"As for what we will do, we need to find a secondary safe place, other than the shack, for one of you to be enclosed in, seeing as we can't be certain which of you will transform. We have yet to find a place."

Remus nodded, biting his lip. Even though the Marauders knew many niches and secret rooms in Hogwarts, he doubted any of them would be able to contain a werewolf.

"Do you have any more questions, Mr. Lupin?"

He shook his head. "No, Professor."

"Then you may leave."

The two boys exited the room and began their trip back to Gryffindor Tower in silence. Remus felt as though there was a heaviness in the air that made Sirius's presence seem awkward to him, and he didn't like it. It was _never _awkward with Sirius - the boy always managed to lighten the mood with idle chatter - and even when Sirius was in one of his dark brooding moods, his negative emotions were never aimed at Remus.

The werewolf wanted to strike up a conversation - screw apologies, he just wanted to forget that their fights had ever happened - but he didn't know what to say. In the end, it was Sirius who spoke first, and Remus's heart sunk at the boy's dark tone.

"So…," he said. If it weren't for anger in his voice, Remus might have thought he was just floundering for a topic of conversation. But Remus knew this was not the case and waited patiently while Sirius got around to saying what he wanted to.

"So you're queer, are you?"

Of all the things Sirius could have picked to talk about, it just _had _to be that one. Remus could have quite happily gone the rest of his life without anyone broaching the topic of his now-questionable sexuality. Of course, he never expected that to happen, but even just a little time to sort his head out would have been appreciated.

But Sirius wasn't finished.

"Because, you know, I am supposed to be one of your best mates. You'd think you could have told me." Sirius was angry, and his tone and words showed that he was clearly looking for a fight. But Remus also thought he heard a note of hurt that he hadn't anticipated.

"I don't know," Remus said softly, so quiet it was almost a whisper. "I'm not sure whether I am or not. I've never… I don't…." His throat choked up, and he fell silent. He hadn't really known what he was going to say anyway.

Sirius, who had been expecting Remus to respond angrily like he had at supper, didn't know what to do as the werewolf hung his head. Oh Merlin, he wasn't going to cry, was he? What were you supposed to do when someone cried? Pat their shoulder?

It was rather unnerving, Sirius thought, when it was to be his own shoulder that he would be patting.

"Well… er… what do you mean, you don't know?" Sirius asked, desperate to keep Remus talking. The werewolf shrugged and took a deep breath.

"I just don't know. I mean, I've never really liked a girl like _that_, but I've never… I've never liked a boy either."

"Oh," was all Sirius could think of. And why was the walk to the common room so long anyway? They should be there by now. Anything to escape the awkwardness of this conversation. "What about Faire?"

"I… I dunno. I think I might like him… but I'm not sure."

"How can you not be sure?" Sirius asked. He didn't get how Remus could be so uncertain. When he liked a girl, he thought she was hot. He liked the way she smiled, or how pretty she looked. Sometimes (more often now that he was sixteen) he'd get hard thinking about her. He couldn't understand how Remus didn't know that he liked someone.

"Well I've never liked someone before…," Remus told him.

It was a good thing they reached the portrait hole when they did, because Sirius had no clue what to say to that.

"Popping Pustules," he told the Fat Lady, who swung open without even glancing at them.

They were immediately ambushed by James and Peter, who wanted to know what Slughorn had said. Remus just shrugged the questions off and told the other three that he was going to bed, and headed up to the dormitory despite the weird looks that the other Marauder's gave him for retiring at such an early time.

"What's with him?" James asked. Sirius shrugged, and changed the subject by filling the other two in on what had gone down in McGonagall's office (complete with a detailed description on how the two professors had been sending each other "doe-eyed" looks whenever they thought Remus and Sirius weren't watching). Soon James and Peter were too busy trying to convince Sirius that his imagination was far too active, and that he was definitely seeing things, to spare a thought for Remus' odd behaviour.

Remus hoped his friends wouldn't think him too rude for leaving so abruptly, but after the days events and stresses, he honestly didn't think he could keep his eyes open another minute. He didn't even hear James, Peter or Sirius as they crept in later that night, and he most definitely didn't see the worried look that Sirius cast at his closed curtains.

* * *

><p>Remus spent Saturday hiding from anyone who knew him well enough to initiate a conversation. Well, he couldn't really <em>hide <em>from the Marauders, but he certainly skulked around where there was no chance they'd run into him by accident.

He told himself that he wanted space to think, but that wasn't strictly true. In reality, what he really wanted was space to forget what he was supposed to be thinking about, but that didn't happen easily when one was hunched in a corner underneath the Quidditch Stands with nothing much else to do.

To his surprise, it was Lily who found him.

"Remus? What are you doing under here?" her voice was easily recognisable, even if her face was cast into shadow due to the darkness underneath the stands (when Remus skulked, he skulked thoroughly, in the furthest reaches of the gloomy hidey-hole.)

It took him a moment to remember what Sirius had said in the library, and then relief washed over him in such strong waves that he was surprised. Why was he so ridiculously pleased that he didn't have to pretend, or lie, or explain to Lily what was going on?

He offered her a weak smile. "Oh, you know," he said, shrugging. "Just admiring the plant-life."

Lily raised her eyebrows in disbelief as he pointed to a patch of moss. "Sure," she snorted. Crouching down so that she could make her way underneath the lower beams, she took a seat next to him.

"You know," she said, observing how his arms encircled his legs protectively and the way he fought to summon a smile, "you look as though you're hiding to me."

"Do I?" Remus asked, faking innocence. Lily's smile told him she wasn't fooled.

"How'd you find me, anyway?" It was a mystery to him why she would look for him here, and he honestly doubted she just happened to be in the area.

"James," was her simple reply.

"Oh." That explained it. Prongs never could deny his Lily-flower anything, and he _did_ have the ideal tool to find Remus.

A comforting arm wound itself around Remus' shoulders, and he leaned into Lily's embrace. That's what he liked about her - no words needed to be said. He didn't have to tell her, and she didn't have to ask. The only sound was their quiet breathing.

And it worked. While Lily was beside him, Remus' mind didn't wander back to those unthinkable thoughts. He stopped needing to distract himself because he stopped thinking altogether. And, as though thinking had been his problem in the first place, by not thinking of anything in particular, he came to a decision.

"Lily," he said, more boldly than he felt. "I think I'm gay."

His voice might have been bold, but he couldn't bring himself to look at her when he said it. He half-feared that she'd retract his arm from around his shoulder in disgust, and he held perfectly still, as though the slightest movement might prompt her to do so.

The amusement in her tone took him by surprise. "Oh do you now?" she asked, as though trying not to laugh. "I don't think you're the only one. In fact, I think you're probably the last person to figure it out."

Remus fell silent; what was he supposed to say to _that_?

"For the record," Lily said, when it became clear he wasn't going to reply. "I don't care, and it won't matter to anyone who knows you."

Thoughts of the conversation he'd had the night before drifted through his mind. "It might to Sirius," he muttered.

Lily paused, as though unsure what to say to that. When she did speak, her tone was careful. "Well…," she said hesitantly, "Black _will _come around. Trust me. And I don't think he _actually _minds, so to speak."

Remus looked up at her. He knew her well enough to know when she wasn't saying everything. "What aren't you telling me?" he demanded. Lily giggled.

"Nothing." She grinned. "Nothing at all. You're being paranoid, and I doubt being cooped up under here will help matters. Would you like to join me as I emerge into the sunlight?"

Remus doubted sitting under the stands was making him paranoid, but he rose to his feet all the same. "What do you want to do?" he asked. Lily grinned at him.

"I think I have an idea," she said.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: These dates aren't real. Just like the slight Alternative Timeline, as by sixth year, three out of four of the Marauders were animagi, the full moon dates and the Halloween date are invented. In 1976, Halloween was actually on a Sunday, but that didn't work into my story line because I made the full moon the night before. So these are totally invented. **


	4. Casanovas and Conversations

**Chameleon Changes Chapter 4**

_Casanovas and Conversations_

"I didn't know you liked flying," Remus commented as Lily handed him a broomstick. "In fact, I thought you were morally opposed to it because it 'gave Potter a big head'." The last part was complete with air quotes, and Lily laughed.

"No, I'm morally opposed to _Quidditch_," she corrected. "And you can't tell me I'm wrong about that. But I love flying. I can remember jumping out of a swing and flying when I first learnt I had magic, and before I even came to Hogwarts, Severus and I used to steal his Mum's broomstick…."

She trailed off, and her happy expression was replaced by a brooding one. Remus understood why - he knew that her and Snape had been close friends most of their school life, and before, by the sounds of it, but lately they hadn't been spending as much time together. He never asked why, but he didn't need to be extra observant to see that it was hurting her.

"But anyway," she said, brightening up, "I still love flying in general. And it helps me take my mind off things." She didn't need to voice the comment that Remus could probably do with that right now.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Remus asked, swinging his leg over the rough wooden handle. "Let's go!"

He kicked off without waiting to see if she was following, laughing at the pleasant sensation of the wind blowing in his face. He looked back to see if Lily was keeping up, only to have her shoot past him. "You'll have to fly faster than that," she taunted.

With determination that left no room for the contemplation of other topics, Remus sped after her. She anticipated this though, and swerved to the right. He was forced to veer off-course in order to follow her.

Together they raced, with no specific destination in mind, nor any rules to follow. They flew like adults but laughed like children; carefree, as if both of their troubles had been left behind on the ground.

Remus was actually a rather good flyer, although this was overlooked as he was too often left in James' and Sirius' shadows. With two great Quidditch heroes as best friends (and no chance of making the team thanks to his abysmal hand-eye coordination), Remus rarely got to display his skills on a broom. But up in the air with Lily, he could fly to his heart's content; it wasn't about flying to impress, but just about the sheer, child-like fun of it.

They raced towards the forest and made a left turn before they reached it. Soon they were flying over the clear waters of the lake, toes just skimming the icy depths. It was a pity it was so close to winter, Remus mused; to plunge in there, broomstick and all, would feel fantastic.

It seemed Lily was of the same mindset as him, and she threw him a wicked look that was not unlike Sirius' expression when he thought of a particularly funny prank. Before Remus knew what was happening, she had grabbed hold of his wrist (the one that was not attached to the hand grasping the broomstick) and dragged her down with him as she dived beneath the water's surface.

He barely had enough time to take a breath and close his eyes before he was submerged in what felt like ice. The cold pressed in at him from everywhere, forcing him to expel air from his lungs, and he felt Lily's touch disappear. Unsure what one was supposed to do when flying underwater, he tried a combination of directing the broom upwards and thrashing about for dear life. Surely one of them would work?

His theory was proved correct as his head broke the surface, gasping and spluttering. It was slightly warmer in the air, but not by much as the chill winds blasted through his drenched clothes. Above him, Lily laughed joyously despite her chattering teeth.

"What in Merlin's name was _that _for?" he demanded of Lily, not really angry with her, but not yet over the shock of his sudden swim.

"It was for excitement!" she called back, and Remus only just realised then how loud the wind was in his ears. "It was for spontaneity. And wasn't it _fun_?"

"You're mad!" he told her. She only grinned, and dived back beneath the surface. He hung above the water, unsure whether or not he wanted to follow her. But in the end, he was already wet, and it wasn't that much warmer up there.

Their flight didn't last long after that. It _was _almost winter, and even though it was a nice day, flying meant wind, and wind meant cold, so regretfully the two of them made their way back to the edge of the lake and dismounted, shivering.

Lily turned to walk away from the lake, but Remus grabbed her arm. "Wait," he told her. "Let's not go back up to the castle just yet. It's still sunny; can't we just dry by the lake for a while?"

She glanced back up at the castle before turning to Remus and nodding. Whether she knew that he didn't want to be around the other Marauders yet, or whether she just thought it was a good idea the werewolf didn't know. Regardless, he was grateful that she didn't ask questions. Without speaking she made her way over to a rock and took a seat.

"So what was with the sudden desire to drown?" Remus asked jokingly as he sat next to her. Wordlessly, Lily began stripping off her wet jumper.

She shrugged. "I'm not sure. I guess… I've flown out over the lake before, and it's always something I've thought I'd do one day, when it was warmer, or I felt more daring, but I never got round to it."

"You _could_ have waited until it was warmer," Remus grumbled. His shivers began to subside.

Lily shrugged again. "I could have. I probably would have. But I thought 'Well, it's sixth year now'. There's only one more, and that's not a lot of time left; not when the others went by so fast. And there's a war on."

"We don't know when it will end," Remus said quietly. He didn't know whether he was talking about the war, or their lives.

"Exactly," Lily said. "I'm a muggle-born, and they've attacked school-aged children before, over the summer. I could be next. Even more so because I'm not going to sit tightly and hope it will end, like some people are doing."

She pulled off her shoe and emptied the water out of it, sitting it beside her jumper. "Aren't you going to strip off?" she asked.

Remus blinked, surprised by the sudden change of topic. "I wasn't planning on it, no," he said. She laughed.

"Come on, you'll never get warm wearing that wet thing," she told him. "What is it? Are you _shy_?"

Suddenly, he remembered that he was in Sirius' body. It had become natural to hide his scars from other people's eyes that he kept himself covered as a matter of habit. He wriggled out of his shirt and jumper.

"Do you come swimming in the lake much?" Lily asked. Remus shook his head. He was aware that it was a bit of a fad at the moment - and he could see why. During summer, it was the best way to cool down. A lot of the more sporty boys like James and Sirius did it, and just about as many girls did so too.

"Is it because you don't like taking your top off?" she guessed. "Because if that's the case, you could come swimming with me sometimes. I won't say anything; I won't ask questions."

"You know," he stated dully. He'd wondered if she knew; after third year, she'd stopped asking about his monthly disappearances, seeming to accept them as part of the routine. He had wondered if she'd just come to expect them and the half-answers he gave about them, or whether she'd realised the real reason.

"Yeah," she said gently. "For a while now. I'd hoped you'd tell me yourself, but…."

"It's not something I'd tell anyone, Lily," he said, and he reluctantly began peeling off his shirt. It really was too cold with it on.

She nodded, her eyes sad, but understanding. "Do Potter and Black…?"

"They all know," Remus said. Lily nodded, and Remus couldn't tell whether she was surprised or not.

"Does… does Bradley?" she asked. Remus shook his head.

"He doesn't even know I'm not Sirius," Remus said, and he couldn't keep the bitterness from his tone.

"I'm sure it won't matter to him," Lily said. Then she paused. "Wait, you are going to tell him, right?"

Remus shrugged. "I may have to," he said.

"You should," Lily advised him. "And soon. You don't want to risk losing his friendship."

Remus didn't even think it _was _just friendship now. That was something else he didn't want to think about.

They remained by the lakeside for a while longer as their bodies gradually warmed up again. The sun was low in the sky by the time they returned to the castle.

* * *

><p>Remus watched with wide eyes as the hairs were lowered into the clear potion. Perhaps if the situation had been different and he didn't have so much on his mind, he might have asked Professor Slughorn how it worked. Unfortunately, the situation wasn't different, and Remus had many other things on his mind, including telling his friends he was gay, telling Brad he wasn't Sirius, his upcoming date with said Ravenclaw, and the fact that it was quite possible that his best friend would be turning into a werewolf in six days.<p>

All the same, he was very interested to observe how this type of potion worked, and the scholar-part of his brain noted the reaction very carefully.

Potions that were not ingested were well beyond NEWT level, and their theory would only _begin _to be covered in Seventh year. Even though Potions wasn't exactly Remus' best subject, he was still eager to observe what happened.

"Well, it wasn't a potion, Minerva," Professor Slughorn told her as it turned a bright shade of blue. His usual jovial smile was replaced with a concerned frown.

It was relatively early on a Sunday morning - although not early enough that James hadn't beaten them out the door to an early morning Quidditch practise. Remus was only too glad that Sirius had a year-long ban for "never-before seen violence towards the other team", although how he could get penalised for _that _when he was Beater, Remus would never understand. To be fair, it wasn't _all _the teams he tried to maul - just the Slytherin one.

"We could have told you that!" Sirius exclaimed, outraged. "But you wouldn't listen!"

Remus subtly kicked him, although it was slightly belated.

"Yes, Mr. Black," Professor McGonagall said icily. "You also said that you couldn't tell us which spell caused this, so naturally we had to assume that there was something you were hiding. Not to mention, that seeing it is indeed a spell, you were messing around with spell books that were most definitely in the restricted section. How, may I ask, did you get in there?"

"Muggle Studies," Sirius said quickly. Remus vowed never to chastise Sirius for prank-pulling ever again; it was his years of experience when it came to on-the-spot excuses that were saving them now.

"Muggle Studies?" Professor McGonagall looked at him doubtfully.

"Yeah," Sirius nodded earnestly. "We all got restricted section passes. There's some gruesome books on muggle torture that aren't fit for the eyes of little kiddies." He grinned charmingly at the professor. Something about her stern expression told Remus that she had failed to be won over by it.

"I will be confirming your alibi," she warned Sirius severely. Remus hoped that he hadn't just made it up.

"So what happens now?" Remus interjected.

"I have sent a letter to Professor Dumbledore; he is currently wrapped up in discussions with the Ministry in Pakistan, and cannot return within the week. However, I have sent letters to several Transfiguration correspondents in the hope that they may have come across _anything _ like this before. In a worst case situation, we will have to consult St. Mungos, but we will hold off from doing that unless it is absolutely necessary."

"Why-" Sirius went to cut in, but the professor continued to talk over him.

"I hope that you are aware that I have never before been so completely _stumped _by a Transfiguration spell as I have by this one." Remus saw the corner of Sirius's mouth twitch up at the word 'stumped', and he could see why. It wasn't a word that he would have expected their strict, old-fashioned, to-the-letter Transfiguration professor to use.

"You may leave," she said, dismissing them. "Horace, I'll need a word with you."

Remus and Sirius exited in silence, and began walking. Remus wasn't sure what to say, or even whether Sirius was still mad at him. He would have thought that their relationship would be less strained after their conversation last night, but the atmosphere was still tense. Finally, Sirius broke the silence.

"So do you have any plans for today?" he asked.

Remus shrugged. "Not really. I thought I might go to the library; I have some homework to do." He didn't mention that he was sort of hoping to run into Brad. Not only did he want to know where and when they were meeting on Wednesday, but he thought that he needed to spend some time around someone who wasn't going to snap at him for the littlest things. As much as he loved Sirius, the dog-like boy had been in a constantly bad mood, and Remus was getting tired of it. "What about you?" he asked.

Remus never found out what Sirius had planned. Just as the Black opened his mouth to say something, they both caught sight of Brad coming towards them. A dark frown crossed Sirius' face, but Remus… well, his beaming smile practically outshone the sun.

"Hey Sirius," Brad said, the wideness of his grin matching Remus'. "Where are you off to?"

"The dorm to get some books. Then I'm going to the library," Remus replied.

"Great!" Brad said. "I'm going to the library as well. I can meet you there."

Remus paused. "Well," he said slowly, "I don't really need my books. I'll just come with you."

Brad's smile widened even further, if that were possible. "Awesome."

Remus was so absorbed in his hastily-started conversation with Brad that he barely noticed that Sirius was still there. He remembered at the last minute and turned back. "See you tonight," he said.

And Sirius was left standing by himself in the middle of the corridor, a little hurt by the brief brush-off, and wondering what exactly made Remus so happy about seeing that ponce of a bookworm.

* * *

><p>"So… the aim of the game is to get the ball into a hoop?" Remus asked. Brad nodded.<p>

"But there's only one. They have a keeper too, but it's harder because they can't fly to block the ball - the have to stop the thrower from throwing it."

"It doesn't seem _too _different," Remus said sceptically. "Quidditch still makes more sense, though."

Brad laughed. "A lot of wizards think that. I prefer Quidditch too, but it's funny trying to explain to people here about muggle sports. Only the muggleborns really get them."

They were walking back from the library. Remus' arms were full with the books he'd checked out, and Brad's arms were full with books too - also ones that Remus had checked out. The werewolf had no idea how he was going to manage getting them up to his dormitory once he'd left the Ravenclaw at the portrait hole. Maybe he could take a leaf out of Sirius book and "recruit" a first year…?

"Are you muggleborn?" Remus asked.

Brad shook his head. "No, but both my parents were, and I have a lot of close muggle relatives. I went to a muggle primary school too, so I know as much about muggles as any muggleborn."

Remus chewed his lip. "I always wanted to know more about muggles," he admitted. "What they do without magic is fascinating. We-"

Then he stopped. He'd been about to tell Brad that they'd lived near a muggle town before they'd moved, and he'd made friends with some of the children there. But he'd forgotten an important point; Brad thought he was Sirius. And Sirius, as heir of the Black family, had never moved, and had most definitely not been permitted to make friends with the muggle children.

"We?" Brad prompted.

"We weren't allowed to make friends with the muggles though," Remus said quickly. "My brother and I. But I always wanted to."

Brad was about to speak when a small ghost - who Remus knew for a fact stuttered when he talked - glided out of the wall and, not noticing the two boys there, travelled straight through the blond. Brad shuddered, and Remus winced in sympathy - Sirius had insulted Moaning Myrtle once, and she'd harassed them for weeks, swooping through them at every available opportunity until she finally accepted his apology. From then on, he vowed to avoid walking through ghosts for the rest of his life. It was a very unpleasant sensation.

"Watch where you're going," Brad told him. The ghost turned back, as though surprised to see him there.

"Ah, b-but it is y-you who sh-should b-be watching were y-you are g-going, young Sir," he said. "F-Filch is l-looking for students t-to pin d-dungbombs on," and with that, he disappeared before either boy could ask him for any further information.

Brad looked at Remus warily. "I thought there was a funny smell," he said. "Do you think we should take another route?"

"Definitely," Remus agreed. As a Marauder, he'd had enough trouble with Filch to last several lifetimes, and he was very wary about engaging with the wheezing man, even when he was innocent. "Filch'll blame anyone who crosses him. We don't want to be caught hanging around here."

He was about to turn back the way they came when two frightened looking third years came racing past, their feet pounding against the floor. Remus had been in that situation enough to know that Filch would not be far behind. "Quickly," he hissed at Brad. "In here."

Balancing his books precariously in the crook of one arm, he wrenched the door open and gestured for the blond to go through, before hurrying in after him. Sure enough, not ten seconds had passed before Filch could be heard thundering past after the students, shouting at the top of his voice "You'll never get away with it! I'll have you strung up in the dungeons."

Remus got the extremely strange sensation that he was watching something that had happened to him from someone else's perspective. In a way, he was.

"Wow, that was close," Brad said. "Although by the sounds of it, he was too busy chasing those second years."

"I thought they were third years," Remus commented idly. "And I doubt it would have mattered to him. He probably would have tried to say it was us anyway - he doesn't like me very much."

"How come?" Brad asked.

Remus laughed. "That," he said, "is a whole lot of very long stories. But we should probably get going if we want to get to dinner on time."

Brad nodded his agreement, and Remus balanced his pile of books on one knee as he reached for the door handle. He knew it was a bad move as soon as he'd made it; the books began slipping and he grasped for them desperately.

Brad had the same idea, and reached out with his free hand to save them. Somehow this brought Remus' and Brad's faces together; much closer than they'd usually be. They were looking directly into each other's eyes, and Remus could feel Brad's breath fanning against his face, making Sirius' long hair blow gently in time with it.

_Sirius' hair_. Oh Merlin, he was still in Sirius' body. He had to tell Brad before things went any further. He had to-

His thoughts were cut off as a pair of soft lips gently pressed against his.

His eyes fluttered shut automatically as he leaned forwards into the kiss. The corners of the books, held awkwardly between the two of them, were pressing into his stomach hard enough to bruise now, but he didn't care. He was being kissed - his first kiss - and the kisser was a boy he liked immensely. It didn't matter if the world burst into flames around them - this was a perfect moment.

But it wasn't perfect, and it wasn't long before Remus remembered why. With a gasp, he pulled backwards - and hit his head on the door. '_Smooth, Casanova,' _he thought to himself, using the popular muggle phrase he'd read in a book he'd brought.

"Are you okay?" Brad asked, concerned but still breathless. The werewolf knew how he felt - on the breathless count, anyway. He nodded and would have rubbed his head, had he the hands to do so.

Regretfully he crossed over to the nearest desk and placed his books on it. Brad looked confused (although a little hopeful). Remus gestured towards a chair. "Take a seat," he said, "we need to talk."

His hopeful look was immediately replaced with worry and a little bit of fear, and Remus felt horrible. This should be great for the both of them, and his stupidity was going to ruin at all.

No, not his stupidity. His _condition_. It all stemmed back to him being a _werewolf_. He'd never hated what he was as much as he did now.

"Is this the part where you tell me you're straight?" Brad asked worriedly, only half-joking.

Remus hastily shook his head. "No, no, I'm pretty sure I'm… I'm gay."

"Oh good. Are you worried about coming out? Because we don't have to tell anyone if you don't want to…." Brad was speaking quickly, and Remus held up his hand to stop him.

"It's not that either. I really don't know how to say this…."

"What is it?" Brad sounded really concerned now.

"I'm… I'm not Sirius."

"Come again?" Brad sounded surprised and sceptical, and Remus couldn't blame him. The werewolf didn't manage to meet his eye for long before returning his gaze to the ground.

He took a deep breath, not entirely sure where the explanation was going but hoping like hell that he didn't foul it up. "I'm not Sirius," he repeated. "We were… we were mucking around with spells and one of them went wrong. I've been stuck in this body since then, and we haven't yet found a way to change us back."

Brad blinked. "If this is some kind of-"

Remus cut him off before he even finished the sentence. "It's not a joke," he said. "I'm serious. I can't prove it to you, because I didn't know you well before the switch, but I hope you'll take my word for it."

"So… who are you?" Brad's voice was still filled with scepticism, but Remus' heart leapt in hope at the question. At least he wasn't saying he was mad or a liar and telling him he wanted nothing to do with him.

Yet.

"Remus Lupin."

"That scrawny kid?" was the immediate response. Remus laughed good-naturedly, and Brad flushed. "Sorry," he said.

"Don't be," Remus said. "It's probably a bit to get your head around."

"It is," Brad said. "So… how long…?"

"How long have I been like this?" Remus supplied. "Since the Friday before last. So ever since I started talking to you."

"Right. And you're actually Remus Lupin?"

"Yes."

"Right, sorry. It's just a lot to take in."

"Yeah," Remus said. He chewed his lip and then added, "Look Brad, I haven't lied to you any more than I had to when I could help it. Other than the name and the face, and some things like saying that I wasn't allowed to play with muggle children, it's always been me that you've known."

"I guess this explains the books I saw you with. On advanced Transfiguration."

"Yeah…."

"So where does this leave us?" Brad asked.

Remus shrugged. "I don't know; it's really up to you. I'm not the one who's been lied to for the past week."

"Yeah."

"Brad… I really am sorry about this."

"I know," he said. "I'm not mad… just sort of absorbing the information. I still haven't quite grasped it."

* * *

><p>It ended up being that they <em>were <em>late for dinner. Despite everything Remus had just told him, Brad insisted on waiting for Remus as he put the books away in his dorm - a gesture that Remus couldn't quite explain in words how much it touched him. As they entered the Great Hall, Brad's eyes immediately shot to where the Marauder's were sitting.

"So that's you, is it?" he asked. Remus nodded. "You could be worse," he said. It was clearly a joke - a weak one, but an attempt all the same. They both laughed regardless.

"So are we still on for Wednesday?" Remus asked. Brad nodded.

"Definitely. I think I want to get to know "Remus"."

* * *

><p>"You <em>what<em>?"

"No way, Moony, that's not cool. You can't go spilling Marauder's secrets to your boyfriend."

"What did he say when you told him?"

Three pairs of voices rang out at once, all clambering to be heard over one another. It wouldn't take much to figure out who said what - especially when it only took one look at their faces to see what they thought about this new development.

Sirius looked furious; there was no other way to put it. He'd disapproved of Brad from the start - actually, "intense dislike" was probably a phrase that suited it better. Of course, the incredulous exclamation had come from him. He glowered at Remus as though the werewolf had committed a crime against humanity, and none of the other Marauders _really _knew why he felt this strongly.

Lily had guessed though.

James looked more like a child who'd been told they couldn't have any sweets today. He didn't seem to have a problem with Brad in particular - what he did object to was the sharing of what he deemed to be "Marauders' Secrets" with those who weren't Marauders. Of course, the fact that he would have told Lily everything in a heartbeat was irrelevant.

That left Peter as the response to Remus' information, and the werewolf had never been more thankful of the not-quite-animagus than at that moment. Peter was more accepting than anyone gave him credit for, and he seemed to take the information that Brad knew as a statement of fact, and moved on with it. In a way, he was a bit like Lily in the way that she probably would have asked the same thing. Maybe if James had been set against it, Peter's opinions would have been different - if he had one fault, it was his ability to be influenced - but as it was, Remus knew that he practically had the support of one Marauder so far.

"It's not 'Marauders' Secrets'," he told James, resisting the urge to point out that it was a stupid thing to call it their secrets anyway. It sounded like that muggle lingerie brand.

Not that Remus was very familiar with muggle lingerie.

"It's personal. I couldn't _not _tell him."

"Why _did _you tell him?" Peter asked curiously. And that, of course, was the million-galleon questions; the one Remus really didn't want to share with his friends. But had been asked, so now he had to tell them.

"He kissed me," Remus said quietly, his face once more taking on the resemblance of a tomato. "And he thought he was kissing Sirius. I couldn't _not _tell him."

"Yes, you could have," James insisted stubbornly. Remus looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"And left Sirius with a boyfriend he doesn't know when we get changed back?" Remus asked. James shrugged.

"What did he say when you told him?" Peter asked again. "Was he mad?"

A smile pulled at Remus' lips. "Well, he was surprised at first, but we're still going to Hogsmeade on Wednesday, so I think he might be alright with it."

Remus almost jumped out of his skin when a red-head dropped into the chair next to him. "Is what I hear true?" Lily asked teasingly, totally ignoring the other three Marauders. "Did someone finally tell his boyfriend everything?"

"I don't think he's my boyfriend _exactly_," Remus said. "It's complicated. But yes, I told him I'm not Sirius."

"That's brilliant!" Lily said. Then she turned to James. "And what do you think of this?" she demanded. Remus recognised that glint in her eye for what it was - pure evil. Last time she'd looked like that, he'd ended up cold and drenched.

James looked pretty amazed that Lily was talking to him - not shouting, _talking_. Maybe her tone was a little accusatory, but she was still holding a conversation with him. "Erm," he said, his voice dazed. "I think it's brilliant. Moony can go out with whoever he likes. So long as he's happy."

While this probably reflected James' actual view, judging from the easygoing way he had called Brad Remus' boyfriend earlier, neither the werewolf nor Peter could hold back a smile at the way his view on "Marauder's Secrets" turned around in the blink of an eye.

"Good," Lily said, and threw Remus a smile. "Now," she pulled Remus up by his arm, "let's go somewhere where we won't be disturbed. I also overheard that you two kissed. I want to hear _all _about it."

Remus let himself be led away with a smile. Two Marauders down.

However, his smile faded a little when he turned back and caught sight of Sirius. The boy's silence _definitely _meant that he was sulking, and Remus had a feeling he would not be as accepting as the other two.

He _hated _dealing with a sulking Sirius.


	5. Courtings and Calamities

**Chameleon Changes Chapter 5**

_Courtings and Calamities_

Remus was familiar with the expression 'butterflies in the stomach'. Sometimes he felt them before important tests. But he felt now that "butterflies" didn't quite cover it. It felt more like a dozen miniature garden gnomes with rock picks were attempting to mine his entire abdomen.

"Remus, you look pale," Lily commented over breakfast. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Not really," he said with a small grin. "Nervous."

"You'll be fine," the red-head said briskly, piling more toast onto his plate – exactly the response Remus had been known to give James before a big Quidditch game. "Now eat up. Fainting on a first date is never a good thing."

"I don't even know why I'm so nervous," he admitted to Lily as he nibbled tentatively at a corner of the toast. "It's not like it's any different to what we've done already. We're only… hanging out. The hard part - telling him I'm not Sirius - is already done."

She nodded sympathetically. "You'll be fine. Oh - Bradley's coming over here."

And indeed he was. His smile looked about as nervous as Remus felt. "Yeah," the werewolf said. "We said we'd meet at breakfast."

He pushed himself away from the table. "See you later, Lily," he said, making his way over to Brad. Lily watched them happily.

Sirius, who came into the breakfast hall at that point, saw the two of them and looked completely the opposite.

* * *

><p>Remus leaned back comfortably into the padded seat of the <em>Three <em>_Broomsticks_. Brad slipped into the booth-like seat beside him and handed him his second butterbeer. Remus offered him a smile in return.

He wondered now why he'd been so worried. They'd spent half an hour looking through the shops before coming to the _Three__Broomstick_ where Remus had got them both a butterbeer and they'd sat down. It soon became apparent that awkward silence wasn't going to be a problem - Remus had felt awkward at first, but Brad had started talking about unimportant things in a familiar, comfortable way, and Remus soon found himself telling Brad all about his childhood.

They'd agreed from the start that it was a bad idea to "kiss and stuff", due to what Brad had referred to as the Sirius Factor. All the same, it felt comfortable between them and Remus couldn't imagine why he'd been nervous. It was a bit like spending time with James and Sirius except… nicer.

As he thought that, leaning forwards to take a sip of the ice-cold butterbeer, he felt a warm arm creep around his shoulders and he stiffened. Turning, he looked up into Brad's smiling face and his insides melted.

For a second, he thought that Brad was going to kiss him again. He wouldn't have protested, despite their agreement, but instead the other boy began talking again. Remus shoved down his disappointment and tried to refocus on what Brad was saying.

"But I'm not a huge fan of Quidditch," the Ravenclaw finished.

"Thank Merlin," Remus laughed, successfully hiding the fact that he hadn't been listening the _whole_ time. "I have three best friends who are absolutely Quidditch _mad_. I feel so outnumbered usually."

Brad smiled at him, and asked him something else. Remus wasn't sure what because, right at that moment, a warm hand sneaked its way into his. He looked down, confused for just a second, before he realised that at some point Brad must have retracted the arm from around his shoulders. Then he looked up and met Brad's eyes.

The blond had noticed his startled look. "Is this okay?" he asked nervously.

Remus smiled widely. "It's good," he said lamely. "Really good."

And they fell back into their easy conversation. Every now and then, though, Remus felt Brad's thumb trace gentle circles on the back of his hand, and it made him smile.

He never wanted to let go.

They were halfway through their third butterbeer and were talking about heading to Zonko's when the door to the Three Broomsticks opened and the other three Marauders walked in. Remus fought the urge to sink lower in his seat.

It wasn't that he didn't want them to see him with Brad, or that he didn't want to spend time with his friends. But this was _his_ day; his and Brad's day. He'd never wished his friends were on the other side of the planet before, but he did now.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw James notice him and begin to make a beeline towards him. He stifled a groan; James meant well, but he had yet to comprehend the art of subtlety. Perhaps one day he'd learn it, provided Lily hexed it into him.

Thank Merlin for Pete, Remus thought, as he grabbed James' arm. He was the most underestimated one of the group, but besides Remus he probably had the most common sense. Remus often forgot it, but if it hadn't been for Peter's natural air of caution (that was often mistaken for fear or nervousness), the Marauders would have been eaten years ago by some ghastly creature that dwelt in the Forbidden Forest.

He should have known he wouldn't get away that easily, though. After a moment of discussion, the three took their seats at the other side of the pub. Remus would have bet all the money he owned that it wasn't coincidence their spot had the best view of his and Brad's table. And that they took turns at staring at the couple.

'_Just __you __wait, __James,__'_ Remus thought to himself. _'__Wait __until __you __finally __get __a __date __with __Lily. __Then __you__'__ll __see __what __true __sabotage __is.__' _

As soon as they'd finished their drink, Remus practically dragged Brad out of the place. If the boy thought that Remus was acting oddly, he didn't show it, for which Remus was grateful. The last thing he wanted was for Sirius or James to decide that Remus needed their assistance in _any_way. He could just imagine the disaster that would follow….

They spent a pleasant hour in Zonko's, in which Remus impressed Brad with his knowledge of prank items. What could he say? You can't be a Marauder for over six years and not pick up _something_.

He managed to avoid visiting the Shack without causing a fuss. Maybe Brad thought Remus was scared of the place, and would be embarrassed about his weakness, but he didn't press the issue and, with nothing else the two of them really wanted to do, they began to head back to the castle.

It was far too soon before they reached it, and Remus wished they didn't have to part. Brad must have felt the same, because he suggested they go for a walk out in the grounds. Remus leapt at the chance.

It was so quiet and peaceful. The sun was slowly sinking lower in the sky, but it was still early enough in the day for most third years and above to still be in Hogsmeade. Aside from the few stragglers returning early and the first- and second-years, there were only the older students who'd grown bored with the village after so many years of visiting. And almost _none_ of them were outside.

"You never did tell me what you were doing to get like this," Brad commented, his hands shoved deep in his pockets as they looked out over the serene water of the lake.

Remus knew what he meant at once. "I didn't," he agreed amiably, hoping against hope that Brad wouldn't push the subject

"_Will_ you tell me?" Brad asked, and Remus made the mistake of looking at him as he opened his mouth to answer.

There was an expression on his face that Remus had never seen on someone when they looked at him. It was the type of expression that said _I__trust__you__completely_. It spoke volumes of emotion that couldn't be said in words. It was how a girl looked at the boy she was in love with.

It was how his parents had looked at each other.

For so long, Remus had wanted something like that, and resigned himself to never getting it. He'd known since not long after he'd been bitten that he'd never have a normal life, but it had been a blow when he'd grown old enough to want a relationship and he realised that it would never be the perfect fairy tale. He could never be completely open and honest with whomever he loved, not when that person would abandon him as soon as they found out the truth.

That expression both hurt him and made him giddy at the same time. On one hand, Brad _cared_. He liked Remus, a lot. It was more than Remus thought he could ask for, and yet here it was.

But on the other hand, Remus knew he could never tell Brad everything. He could barely tell him _anything_at all. How could he even explain what they'd been doing, when doing so would mean revealing his condition?

And this was just the start, he realised with a sinking heart. How could he hide his scars? What excuse could he come up with for the ones that covered his body at the moment and, if he got away with that, how could he explain away the new ones that would come up each month? How could he explain completely _disappearing_ at the time of the full moon?

He shoved down the sense of hopelessness that came upon him. "James and Sirius would kill me," he said lightly, trying not to remember that he was lying through his teeth. Then he added cryptically, "Especially Sirius."

"Why _especially _him?" Brad asked.

Remus just smiled, and Brad grinned back. "You can't tell me?" the other boy guessed.

"Pretty much," Remus said regretfully.

"What if I promise not to tell them?" Brad wheedled playfully.

"I suck at lying," Remus laughed. "They'd get it out of me, one way or another."

"You lied pretty well when you were pretending to be Sirius," Brad pointed out. They were beginning to head back towards the castle, and despite wanting his time with Brad to continue, Remus realised that if he kept up the banter, that could be his escape. He felt terrible about deceiving Brad, but what other option did he have? The alternative was telling the truth, and that just wasn't possible.

"Well, I suck at lying to them," Remus corrected himself. "They taught me how to lie, after all. Before I met them, I was an innocent, truthful little boy."

Yet another lie. Remus had hidden his condition from them for over a year. He'd been _very_good at lying, even at the tender age of eleven.

It was amazing how easily his skills were returning to him.

"And they corrupted you?" Brad laughed.

"Like you wouldn't believe," Remus informed him. "If it weren't for them, I probably would have gone my entire school career without a single detention."

They reached the stone steps and began to make their way up them. "I've only ever had two," Brad commented. "One for forgetting about an essay, and one for getting beaten up by Slytherins." His face darkened, and Remus got the feeling that he probably shouldn't ask. Not yet, anyway.

"What a nice life you must have," he said, sighing dramatically. "I can't even keep track of the amount of trouble Sirius and James have got Pete and I into. This year _their_ tally is up to about twenty combined detentions."

"You're kidding!" Brad exclaimed.

"I'm not," Remus sighed woefully. "And those are just the times they've been caught. Of course, my tally is considerably less, but if it weren't for those two…."

"You'd be a perfect little Ravenclaw like me," Brad teased.

Remus smiled. "Curse my misfortune of landing in Gryffindor." They reached the place where they had to part to go to their respective dormitories.

"I dunno," Brad said. "Being a Gryffindor sounds rather exciting."

"Is it worth it, though?" Remus quipped, for lack of something better to say. It was hard to think of replies now they were standing so still and Brad was as close as he was.

"You tell me," Brad breathed. "You're the Marauder."

Slowly they moved closer and closer, and Remus realised that this was it, they were going to kiss. He leaned in, not even caring that he was in Sirius' body.

But before those lips could press themselves to his, footsteps echoed down the corridor, pulling them both from their trancelike state. Remus remembered who he looked like and what they'd agreed, and he could tell from the way Brad pulled back that the Ravenclaw had too. Each stepped back carefully, and Brad attempted to lounge casually against the wall as someone strode past.

"Well, I'd better get going," Brad said awkwardly.

"Yeah," came Remus' lame response.

Brad turned to go, and Remus knew he couldn't leave it like this. "Hey," he called quietly. Brad turned around, hope shining in his eyes.

"I really enjoyed today," Remus said to him, smiling. "Can we do this again sometime?"

Brad's grin was almost unbelievably wide. "I'd like that," he said, and suddenly it didn't matter that Remus had lied to him, or that they hadn't kissed, because the Ravenclaw looked extremely happy, and damn it all, Remus was happy too.

He waited until Brad had turned the corner before he himself made his way back to the Gryffindor common room.

For now, the happiness that bubbled within him would keep out the doubts and the feelings of discontent. Just this once, he'd enjoy what he had while he had it.

* * *

><p>Remus watched the two teachers worriedly. Both he and Sirius had been called to Professor McGonagall's office that morning, regardless of any classes they had. That fact alone spoke volumes about how urgent the matter must be, and Remus thought it would be a safe bet to assume it was about the delicate situation Sirius and Remus found themselves in.<p>

He'd hoped that it would be good news, but as soon as he'd seen the sombre expression on Professor Slughorn's and Professor McGonagall's faces, he guessed that it wasn't the case. But Sirius, as unpunctual as ever, wasn't here yet, so Remus had little choice but to take a seat and wait.

Doing so did not put his mind at ease, however. His thoughts were racing, his mind coming up with a million terrible, terrible reasons as to why they'd been called here. What if it was permanent, and Sirius was stuck in the body of a werewolf? What if Professor McGonagall had guessed what they were doing? She was an animagus, after all. She'd probably taken the exact same steps to become a cat. What if-

His overactive imagination was halted there as Sirius glided smoothly through the door. '_Bastard_,' Remus thought to himself, annoyed. He briefly forgot about the bad news he suspected they were about to be told. The werewolf knew _he_never looked that smooth when he walked. His limbs pointed out everywhere and he looked gangly and slightly uncoordinated. It wasn't fair that Sirius was more graceful in his body than Remus himself was.

"Ah, Black, you're finally here," Professor McGonagall said. Remus' heart sank. She should have scolded Sirius for his lateness, not accepted it resignedly. _'__It__'__s __not __bad __news,__' _Remus thought to himself, as though he could make it true by sheer will. _"__It__'__s __not.__"_

"I have some good news," McGonagall said, causing Remus' heart to soar. But before he could celebrate prematurely she added, "And some bad news."

She peered over her spectacles at the two of them. Remus was leant forwards on his chair, his knuckles white from clutching so hard at the seat. He knew that, when he let go, his hands – _Sirius__' __hands_ – would have indentations from the corners of the chair that would be ingrained on his palms.

On the other hand, the boy who had appeared to be Remus looked like the definition of relaxed. He was leaning leisurely back in the seat, and while his eyes were fixed on McGonagall with an intenseness that gave away his interest in what she was saying, that gaze was the only thing that stopped him from looking _bored_.

"The good news is," McGonagall continued, "that Professor Slughorn has found a potion that _should_ reverse the effects of… whatever you've done."

"Should?" Remus asked, sharper than he'd meant to. It was harder to sound like a polite, respectful schoolboy when you were Sirius; of those three things, the Black was only ever usually the last one.

"Should," Professor McGonagall confirmed. "There's a chance it won't work, seeing as we don't know what you've done to get yourselves into this state. It's rarely used because of the exoticness and elusiveness of the ingredients and because of the amount of skill brewing it requires, but our potion master is quite up to the job, and it is almost guaranteed to reverse most transfigurations and transformations.

"What's the bad news?" Sirius asked from beside Remus.

Professor McGonagall's mouth tightened. "It takes no less than a week to brew," she informed them.

Remus felt unpleasantly like he was drowning. The teachers were talking, saying something that was probably important, but he couldn't hear them, like they were talking through a large volume of water. He could see everything clearly, but he found it difficult to actually look.

It wasn't until Sirius nudged his knee that he was pulled back into reality. "Remus?" Sirius asked. "Is that okay?"

"Is what okay?" Remus asked blankly.

"Mr Black will occupy the Shrieking Shack on the night of the full moon," Professor McGonagall said, and Remus guessed from her tone that it wasn't the first time she'd said that.

"What happens to me?" he asked, his mouth dry. He had to keep asking questions, keep thinking about the logistics and the lies Sirius could tell everyone. He couldn't think about what was going to actually happen on the night of the full moon.

"There is a trapdoor on the third floor that students are unaware of," McGonagall said. From Remus' came a small snort that was hastily covered with a cough. Remus hoped his Head of House didn't notice. Sirius' and Remus' eyes met, and they shared a look. _Maybe__some__students__don__'__t__know__it__exists,_the look said. _But__not__all__of__them._

"As you are the least likely to transform, we'll place you in the room it leads to, with a pair of teachers guarding both doors. It will be soundproof and secure, so it should be safe enough if you transform. If you don't, then you'll simply signal to us and we'll let you out."

"What signal?" Sirius asked, interested. He didn't seem the least bit concerned by the fact he'd be turning into a werewolf on the next full moon.

"I imagine knocking and _not_howling would do it," McGonagall said dryly.

She continued talking for another five minutes, and Slughorn said something about the potion. Remus wasn't really listening; he couldn't focus on their words over the sound off the dull roaring in his ears.

'_This __is __all __your __fault,__' _his thoughts accused him_.__ '__All __your __fault.__'_

* * *

><p>"I'm so sorry," was the first thing that Remus said when they escaped McGonagall's office. "I'm so, so sorry."<p>

Sorry didn't cover it. Besides, what use was an apology when it was met with the knowledge that, in a few days, you'd be undergoing one of the most painful transformations known to wizard kind?

But Sirius just shrugged and said breezily, "Don't worry 'bout it."

Remus frowned. "I am worrying about it. I never wanted this to happen."

"I know you didn't," Sirius replied. "It's not your fault. You tried to tell us to wait, and we didn't listen. It's completely out fault; we were dicks, and now we're paying the price. What class do we have now?"

"Herbology," Remus frowned. "Not much point going, though. Everyone will be leaving to shower by now. We might as well just wander around a bit before we go to charms."

"Right," Sirius nodded calmly.

Remus watched him with disbelief. "Aren't you even a little concerned?" he asked.

Sirius appeared to consider this question for a while. "No," he said at last. "Not really."

"Sirius!" Remus exclaimed. "Come Saturday you'll be turning into-" he realised how loud his voice was and looked around conspiratorially. "You'll be turning into a werewolf," he said lowly. "That _should _bother you."

Sirius continued walking, looking extremely unbothered. "It doesn't," he informed his anxious friend.

"It bothers me," Remus admitted.

"Why?" Sirius asked. "Shouldn't you be happy you don't have to transform?"

"No!" Remus exclaimed. "I'd rather have the transformation five times over than have you go through it once!"

Sirius looked touched for a moment, before he smoothed his expression. "Don't worry," he told the werewolf. "There'll be plenty of transformations left for you once Ol' Sluggy gets the potion sorted.

"That's not what I meant," Remus told him darkly.

Sirius stopped walking, looked around, and pulled him into an empty classroom. "Look, Remus," he said, shutting the door behind him. "You warned us, right at the beginning, that becoming animagi would be risky and dangerous. Do you remember what we told you?"

"Not the exact wording," Remus admitted.

"Neither can I," Sirius said, "but I'm pretty sure it was something along the lines of 'We don't fucking care'."

"You didn't swear quite so crudely when you were twelve," Remus pointed out.

"Not the point," Sirius said. "We _knew_that doing this would be risky, Moony. We knew right from the start that there were dangers, and perhaps sacrifices. And do you know why I'm so calm about turning into a werewolf on Saturday night?"

Remus shook his head.

"Because this is a price I'm willing to pay," Sirius told him, "to make the transformations easier for you. If someone had said to me right at the start, 'to become an animagi you will have to spend five years studying magic well beyond you and you will have to transform into a werewolf once before you succeed,' I still would have done _exactly_the same thing as what I did do.

"Just because becoming a werewolf for a night wasn't something we planned on," Sirius finished, "doesn't mean I have a problem with it. Not if it means helping you."

Remus' suddenly found it hard to breathe. "Pads…," he said. "I…."

"Don't try and feel guilty again," Sirius said fiercely. "Because it's not your fault. And I won't hear a word of argument about it." He looked at Remus challengingly, daring him to argue.

"I wasn't going to," Remus said with a smile. "I was just going to say… thank you."

Sirius looked at the ground awkwardly, as though he finally realised that this moment was getting a bit soppy. Which is a little hypocritical given the speech he'd just made, Remus thought to himself. "Well," he said gruffly. "S'true."

Remus smiled. "That doesn't make me any less grateful," he informed his friend. "Now come on, we'll be late for charms."

* * *

><p>Time flew by like a bird on the wind, and all too soon it was Saturday. Sirius could have sworn the days were usually longer than they were at the moment, but he knew it was his mind playing tricks on him. He wanted as much time as possible before his transformation, so naturally what time was left felt like almost nothing at all.<p>

_His__transformation_. The words sounded weird. It had always been _Remus__' __transformation_and _Remus__' __furry __little __problem_. Now, with barely any warning at all, it had become Sirius' problem instead.

They'd spoken about animagus transformations, of course, but those words seemed to have a degree of innocence to them that a werewolf transformation didn't have. It was as though there were two different words – the transformation that was harmless and fun, and the _transformation_that was painful, and into a beast that would kill every single child in Hogwarts if it was given half the chance.

There was no difference in how they were said, but the words seemed to have an aura of power. That aura gave the words all the difference in the world; the same sort of difference between the phrase "fluffy bunny rabbit" and "man-eating acromantula".

He hadn't been entirely honest with Remus when he'd said he wasn't concerned about the transformation. Sure, at the time he hadn't really been worried about it; it had been a few days away, and a few days was a deceptively long time. But as it grew closer and closer, Sirius felt himself growing more and more concerned.

And he could no longer hide his fear on Saturday morning when he woke up and found himself unable to get out of bed.

His limbs were weighted down with sandbags, and sometime over the night a tiny woodpecker had crawled in his ear and was now taking regular pecks at certain parts of his brain. He struggled to sit up and promptly vomited over the side of the bed. At the sound vomit hitting the floor and the disgusting smell that rose up from it, he retched a little bit more.

Three pairs of feet hurried over to his bedside and his curtains were wrenched open. "Sirius?" Remus asked, at the same time that Peter and James both made noises of disgust.

"I feel sick," Sirius said unnecessarily.

"I can see that," Remus said dryly. "Peter, go down to the kitchens and get some peppermint tea. And ask the elves if they could please come and clean up the sick."

"Peppermint tea?" Peter asked.

"Yeah," Remus confirmed. "It does wonders for headaches caused by lycanthropy. I imagine Sirius' head feels like it's been trampled by hippogriffs."

Sirius groaned in agreement as Peter scuttled away. Remus and James stood there awkwardly for a moment. Sirius lay back onto the pillow, wishing his mouth didn't taste like spew. Remus bent down to pick up the blanket Sirius had kicked on the floor overnight. If Sirius could trust his stomach to behave while he spoke, he would have told the other boy not to bother; he felt like he was on fire and the last thing he needed was extra insulation. _'__Probably__a__fever_,' he thought glumly.

Suddenly Remus straightened up. "I know what you need!" he exclaimed. "Chicken soup! It works really well. I'll see if I can persuade the house-elves to make some."

James snorted. "Yeah, _persuading_ them should be hard." But Remus was already dashing out the door.

And then James was alone with Sirius. He sat himself tentatively on the side of the bed without the puddle of sick on the floor. "So," he said, his voice falsely conversational. "Do you regret wishing this upon yourself now?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I am so sorry for the delay! Exams are coming up, and I've run out of prewritten chapters to post. Also, my beta is still AWOL, so I hope there weren't too many mistakes. Apologies if there are. **

**Reviews are love!**


	6. Contusions and Celestials

**Chameleon Changes Chapter 6**

_Contusions and Celestials_

"I'm scared, James," Sirius whispered. He was glad Pete and Remus had gone off; this wasn't something he could say in front of them – especially not the oversensitive werewolf. But he needed to say it. "I'm fucking terrified."

"That's the most sensible thing I've ever heard you say, Sirius," James said. "And that includes the first time you called Snivellus a prat."

"It's going to hurt, isn't it?" He sounded like a child, Sirius knew, but he didn't care. Tonight he was going to turn into a werewolf; he'd more than earned the right to be a little childish.

"Yes," James said. "But there's nothing you can do about that. And you're going to hurt so that Moony won't have to."

"That makes it worth it, doesn't it?" Sirius asked.

"You seemed to think so."

"I'm not so sure now."

"Don't tell Remus that."

"I'm not an idiot, Prongs. Do we have a bowl or something?"

James leapt up and grabbed Sirius' jar of Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans, emptying them onto Peter's bed before handing the empty container to his sick friend. Sirius dry-retched into it, while James sat beside him looking both sympathetic and uncomfortable.

It wasn't long before both Remus and Pete returned, and Remus made the executive decision to take Sirius to the hospital wing. James became Sirius' personal crutch, and by the time they reached the third floor, Pete's jar had become unusable for its original purpose.

As soon as they entered the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey bustled over to them, taking Sirius' pale form off James and leading him to an empty bed. She placed a hand on his forehead, and tutted.

"You're in for a rough day, Mr. Black," she informed him, before summoning three chairs for James, Peter and Remus, and a green, disgusting-looking potion. "I want you boys to be quiet, you hear me?" she told them sternly. "I have sick patients in here and I'll not have them disturbed."

They assured her she wouldn't even know they were there, and she gave them a doubtful look, which Remus couldn't really blame her for. The only time when no one noticed the Marauders was when they were up to something big.

"Madam Pomfrey," Remus asked before she left. "Will I…," he looked around to make sure no one was listening in. "Will I still have to be locked up tonight?"

She pursed her lips. "I'll have to talk to Professor McGonagall," she said slowly, "but I don't see why you should. It's perfectly obvious that Mr. Black is feeling the effects of the full moon while you are not."

He nodded gratefully and turned back to Sirius, who looked, quite frankly, awful. He was pasty amd ill-looking, and it only made Remus more guilty that what the boy was feeling now would be nothing to what he would experience when the moon rose.

* * *

><p>They couldn't wait until the cover of darkness to take Sirius from the castle that night, like Remus usually did. Instead Madam Pomfrey led Remus and James, who were assisting Sirius, down to the Whomping Willow while the sun was still setting. It would have been easier had they gone alone; they could have sheltered under the protection of their cloak. However, they just had to trust that no one <em>too <em>curious was looking out the windows as they slowly helped Sirius down to the base of the tree.

The tunnel was easier, as Sirius had the sides to lean on, and Remus became unnecessary. Instead, he hovered helplessly at his friend's side, wishing he could do more.

Finally they had Sirius situated in a slump on the old, worn bed in one of the rooms. He was pale and shaking, and Remus could see Sirius' skin move as his bones and muscles started shifting around uncomfortably, ready to reform once the moon had risen past the horizon. There was a brief shuffle of movement besides him as James checked his watch; Remus didn't need anyone to tell him that they had twenty minutes to moonrise.

"Time to be going, boys," Madam Pomfrey said primly, but with a trace of sympathy in her voice. "There won't be any close scrapes on my watch."

If the situation wasn't so serious, Remus knew James would have grinned. There would be no end to the dire situations once the other Marauders managed to transform at will into their animals.

"We'll be back here as soon as the moon sets," Remus told Sirius quietly – hopefully too quietly for Madam Pomfrey to hear. While she wouldn't stop them from coming to fetch Sirius, she wouldn't approve of them going without her, and she never came down until sunrise.

Sirius just groaned in response and Remus patted his knee awkwardly before retreating to the doorway with James and the Matron. He wanted to say once again that he was sorry, but before he could, Madam Pomfrey was hearding them out, back to the tunnel.

He knew he couldn't stay with Sirius. He didn't have a choice.

Then why did he feel like he was abandoning him?

* * *

><p>The retreating footsteps barely registered in Sirius' ears over the pounding in his head, but when he opened his eyes next, everyone was gone. He felt a moment of irrational resentment at that; he knew that Remus and James couldn't stay with him through his transformation, but he wished they didn't have to leave him on his own. The transformation seemed a lot less bearable when he was on his own.<p>

His stomach was still rolling constantly, and the nausea was making him shake and causing the room to spin. He lurched off the bed in order to throw up on the floor, but it didn't make him feel any less shitty.

He didn't have the energy to pull himself back onto the bed, so instead he pushed himself a few inches further away from the puddle of sick and leant his head against the splintered wood of the bed. Suddenly, miraculously, the nausea ceased and the pounding in his head quietened a bit. It was a welcome relief.

It didn't last long. Just when he was thinking the transformation might not be so unbearable in this state, a muscle twitched in his back. It was the weirdest sensation – not excruciatingly painful, but it felt somehow _wrong_.

Then another muscle did the same thing, and another and another, until his back was on fire. While one muscle writhing under his skin wasn't too painful, his entire back was spasming and Sirius just wanted it to stop. Soon his legs started doing the same and, before he knew it, his whole body was spasming as the transformation began.

But that was nothing compared to what happened next.

Sirius couldn't hold in a scream as, with a sickening crunch, a bone in his left leg just… _broke_. He wanted to curl into a ball and clutch at it, but he didn't have the strength and it was becoming too painful to move. Now every time his muscles spasmed in his leg, they nudged the injured bone and pain shot up his body.

When one of his ribs did the same, he fell to the floor, one side of his face landing in the vomit that he'd forgotten about. He barely noticed.

Agony sprouted in his hands and feet as claws forced their way through the skin, tearing it and making him bleed. His back arched, spine breaking and reforming as his feet became hind legs and the bones in his hands shattered to form the paws they were soon to become. His clothes tore around him as his body twisted and turned, taking on a new shape.

The last sensation he felt was the bones in his face beginning to break, and a snout pushing its way out of where his nose used to be, before he fell into a blissful abyss of blackness.

* * *

><p>Madam Pomfrey parted from the Marauders in the Great Hall, leaving them to make their way back to Gryffindor Tower. Between the two boys was an air of subdued silence. Every so often, James would glance at the boy in his best friend's body.<p>

"Stop it," he said, as they reached the second floor.

Remus looked up, surprised. "Huh?" he asked.

"Stop beating yourself up about Sirius. Don't say you weren't," James said quickly, as Remus began to protest. "I know you, and I know that you feel guilty about what's happened. Don't. It's not your fault."

Remus tried a grin, but it failed. "It feels like it's my fault," he said miserably. "If you guys had never met me, this wouldn't have happened."

James grabbed his arm and pulled him to a standstill. "Don't talk like that," he told the werewolf fiercely. "This was _our_ choice. Mine, Sirius, and Pete's. We'd all do it for you in a moment – even Pete. So don't you _dare_ think that you're to blame."

There was brief silence for a moment. Then James' voice lightened and he added, "Besides, if we hadn't met you, we would have been expelled back in our first year when they found us wandering around the Forbidden Forest."

Remus remembered that vividly. Sirius, James and Peter, before they had befriended Remus, had decided to be macho adventurers and brave the Forbidden Forest. When dawn arrived before they did, Remus hunted the library for a locating spell and found them, cold, lost, but otherwise unharmed.

"Or we would have been eaten by that hippogriff in our second year," James said, referring to the time he and Sirius decided they'd try and ride the beasts the sixth-year Care of Magical Creatures class was studying. "Or got drowned by Grindylows. Or one of our spells would have gone wrong during one of our pranks and we would have gotten someone killed and been thrown in Azkaban, or-"

Remus cut him off. "Alright, alright," he said, halting the long list James was forming. "I get it. I just feel terrible that Sirius is… you know." He glanced around furtively, not trusting people wandering past not to overhear them.

James was about to reply when Remus swore and pulled him into an open classroom a few feet behind them. It was empty and unlit, the windows that were darkened by dusk being the only light source. Remus quietly pushed the door so that there was only a small gap between it and the door frame.

"Moony," James whispered. "If you wanted to deflower me in a darkened classroom, you need only ask, you know."

"Shush," Remus told him. The pair fell silent as footsteps echoed in the corridor beyond the door. It wasn't until they faded that pair realised they'd been holding their breaths.

"What was that about?" James demanded in hushed tones when silence descended once more.

"Brad," Remus whispered miserably.

"You're kidding," James said. "_That's _who we were hiding from?" He looked baffled. "_Why_?"

Remus avoided James' eyes when he answered. "I was supposed to meet up with him today. I… sort of forgot."

"And now you're hiding from him? Very mature, Moony."

"Only until tomorrow! I'll explain it all when I know Sirius is okay." He paused, then corrected himself. "I mean, I'll think up a convincing lie when I know Sirius is okay."

James shrugged. "Suit yourself," he said. "But can we go back to the common room now? This classroom's rather dark."

* * *

><p>By morning, Remus was exhausted. Rather than sleeping like James and Peter, he'd stayed awake all night. He had briefly attempted to sleep, but the guilt roiling in his stomach wouldn't allow him the luxury. So he'd sat at the window, gazing in the direction of the Shrieking Shack and feeling terrible.<p>

By four in the morning, he found his eyes almost slipping shut, but by then it was too late. The moon would soon be setting, and he wanted to be awake for it.

Even his guilt, however, couldn't keep his eyes from drooping shut as dawn grew closer and closer. He dropped off briefly, before waking with a start. He had no idea how long he'd been asleep but he checked the sky and realised the moon had disappeared from sight.

He briefly contemplated leaving James asleep, but only for a moment. He wasn't certain what state Sirius would be in, but he doubted it would be good and the werewolf wasn't strong enough to carry Sirius by himself. He'd need James.

He gently shook the boy awake, which was not a good idea. He'd forgotten how violent James was when he was woken, and remembered quickly when the boy socked him in the mouth, not in control of his actions in his half-asleep state. Remus yelled in pain, and rolled away from the bed where James was sitting up groggily.

"Moony, mate? Was that you?" He glanced at the floor to see Remus clutching his mouth and glaring up at James. He offered the werewolf a guilty grin. "Sorry about that."

Remus' shout had woken Pete, who sat up with a start. "Wazntmethadunit," he mumbled, sitting up. Then he cleared his eyes and saw the scene in front of him. To his credit, he didn't make a joke. He just asked, "Has the moon set?" and began to get dressed.

"Yeah," Remus said unnecessarily. "Hurry up, you two, or I won't wait for you."

James took far too long for Remus' liking, and both he and Pete were waiting by the door while the boy was still pulling his trousers on. Pete was even wrapped up in a heavy coat, and had a hat, scarf and gloves on. "It's cold out there at night," he said defensively when Remus raised one eyebrow at his outfit.

"It's not like it's snowing," Remus pointed out.

"It's still cold," Pete argued. "Have you been up all night?"

Remus just nodded tersely and grabbed a blanket and some clothes for Sirius, tapping his foot impatiently.

Finally – _finally!_ – James was ready, and the three of them hastily made their way down to the front doors. Pete had the map, making the cloak unnecessary, but luckily they didn't run into anyone anyway. Their luck didn't stretch so far for Filch to have left the doors unlocked, but all it took was a quick spell and they were pushed open, and then Remus was running, sprinting, down the steps and across the grass that was soaked with dew.

James and Peter were left far behind, as they had to take the precaution of shutting the door after them. Even if they hadn't, Remus doubted they would have kept up with him, as fast as he was going. Within minutes he was at the base of the Whomping Willow, impatiently levitating a branch to touch the knot that would freeze the manic vegetation.

The time it took was excruciating, but then he was off again; sprinting for that passageway he knew was there. He had to take it slower in the tunnel; as well as he knew it, the light from his wand was dim and it made seeing hard. But in record timing he was pushing open the trapdoor so hard that it slammed against the floor.

The blood was terrible. It was smeared all over the walls and the battered furniture, and Remus forced himself to ignore it as he stood silently, listening for a noise that would tell him where Sirius was. For a moment it was silent, and Remus suddenly got an awful thought. What if the moon had just been behind a cloud and wolf-Sirius was waiting for his prey, silently stalking closer and closer….

But then he heard a human-sounding whimper of pain and Remus calmed his frantically beating heart. Too much imagination could be a very bad thing, sometimes.

He entered the room they'd left Sirius in, and the first thing that drew Remus' eye was the pitiful figure lying on the floor. "Sirius," Remus whispered, dashing to his side. Once, Remus might have cared that Sirius was naked, but not now.

"Sirius, are you okay?" He reached out to put a hand on Sirius arm.

Sirius saw, and almost yelled, "Don't touch me!"

Remus recoiled, withdrawing his hand like it had been burned. He should have expected this, he knew. Sirius had a right to hate him after what he'd just been through. This was the end to their friendship. Remus would help him to the hospital wing, then he'd pack his things and leave. He'd come back in a few days to take the potion, and then Sirius would never need to see him again. He'd do that for the boy, at least. It was all he could do, now.

His wild imaginings were cut short by Sirius' next words. "Please, Moony," Sirius said more calmly, "I think it's broken."

"Oh," Remus said stupidly. Does this mean Sirius didn't hate him? He didn't dare hope….

"Can I put this blanket over you, then?" he asked. It _was_ cold, and the blanket shouldn't hurt too much.

"Yeah," Sirius said. "It is a bit nippy in here. It's because there's no fireplace."

Remus just looked at him blankly for a moment, before the ridiculousness of the joke and the situation sunk in. Simultaneously, Remus and Sirius burst into uncontrolled laughter. Remus draped the blanket over his friend, who was still giggling.

"Ow, ow, ow," Sirius said after he'd gotten his mirth under control. "That hurts. Don't make me laugh."

"You made you laugh, you prat," Remus pointed out, chuckling. To his dismay, his chuckles turned to sobs in his mouth.

Sirius actually looked frightened. "Don't cry, Moony, don't cry. You hardly ever cry."

"I do," Remus said, fighting to control his tears, "just not where people can see it. I'm sorry, it's just been such a terrible night." What had come over him, bawling like a baby when he clearly needed to be strong? It was probably because he was so tired.

"You should try my night," Sirius said, but the joke fell flat. He reached out, wincing as he jarred his arm, and placed his hand on Remus' knee.

When James and Pete arrived not long after, Remus was healing the wounds in Sirius' skin to the best of his ability and Sirius' arm was tucked safely under the blanket. If the other two noticed that Remus' eyes were a little red, not one of them said anything.

They levitated Sirius onto a stretcher, probably making a much more painful job out of it than Madam Pomfrey would have, and then they magicked him out of the tunnel and up to the castle.

They had less luck returning than they'd had getting out; they almost got caught by a teacher on the way up to the hospital wing and had to quickly duck into a classroom – a feat that was made all the more difficult by the fact that Sirius was very hard to manoeuvre.

Finally they reached the hospital wing. It came as little surprise that Madam Pomfrey was already awake. Her disapproving glare had little bite to it, nor did she say a word about them not being allowed to wander the castle at night. Instead she immediately began to tend to Sirius.

After a short amount of time, she muttered, "Not too shabby, Mr Black. I've seen much worse transformations, much worse indeed. You should be in here for a couple of days, but that's merely a precaution. You'll be as right as rain."

The statement relieved Remus' mind only a little; even his best transformations had been terrible.

"Now you three," she said, turning to the remainder of the Marauder's. "I think I can be persuaded to not say a word about your late night wanderings to Professor McGonagall, provided you all go to bed this instance. If you want to see him, you can come back during visiting hours. He needs his rest."

"I want to stay," Remus said instantly.

"Certainly not, Mr. Black," Madam Pomfrey said, and then frowned. "I mean, Mr. Lupin. You look worn to the bone, and I won't have my patients disturbed. Return to your dormitories."

For once in his life, Remus would have liked to argue with a figure of authority, but James and Peter pulled him away. "You can't help him," James muttered in his ear. "And you'll be much better company with a few hours rest under your belt. Now come on."

They headed back to Gryffindor Tower, and already Remus was making plans to borrow James' invisibility cloak the moment the other two were asleep.

It never happened. He'd only been lying there for a minute before his eyelids grew too heavy to keep open and he drifted off.

* * *

><p>"You didn't wake me!" Remus exclaimed when he found his friends crowded around Sirius' bed in the Hospital Wing. "You let me sleep!"<p>

The matron heard his raised voice, glared at him and put her fingers to her lips. Remus apologised to her, before turning an angry look on his friends.

Peter cowered; James did not. "You were exhausted, Moony," he said calmly. "Sirius was going to be fine. It seemed kinder to let you sleep."

"Well it wasn't," Remus said grumpily, pulling a chair over to the bedside. He turned to his invalided friend. "How are you?"

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck. "Better than last night," he said honestly. "I should be out of here by tomorrow."

"And then we can take the potion and return to our own bodies," Remus said.

Sirius opened his mouth, thought about what he was going to say, and then closed it. "Yeah. I'm considering doing a last bit of mischief while I look like you. You know, get you a month's worth of detentions or something." Remus didn't think that had been what he was originally going to say.

Remus plastered a grin on his face. "McGonagall knows it's you in there," he said. "I'm sure she'd have no problems giving you the detentions instead."

"Good point," Sirius said. There was silence for a moment, and Remus wondered why things were so awkward. Then he inwardly laughed at himself; the reason was obvious.

James shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I'm starving," he said. "I'm going to get us some food from the kitchens. Pete, wanna help me carry it?"

"Sure," Peter agreed, and the two of them exited the Hospital wing a little faster than they probably would have otherwise.

"I think they're tactfully trying to give us time alone," Remus observed. He turned back to Sirius. "So, tell the truth. How was it?"

Remus knew that worse than even the transformation itself was the feeling of isolation that came with lycanthropy. It would be different for Sirius because he wasn't actually a werewolf; in two days he wouldn't even be in a werewolf's body. But Remus never talked about the actual transformation because he was ashamed; he didn't want Sirius to experience that.

Sirius shuddered. "Merlin, it was awful. I can't even remember much about being the wolf, just needing to tear something living apart. My blood was on the floor from when I transformed and it sent the wolf crazy. The whole time I was hunting for people, for humans…."

He paused, and looked down with surprise to see Remus' hand was gripping his tightly. Remus was surprised too; he didn't remember doing it. Sirius squeezed it lightly.

"I think the worst bit was that I wasn't _me_. I was in there, but I had no control. It was like being under the imperius curse, I guess… except worse. _I _was the bloodthirsty monster. It was terrible."

"I'm sorry," Remus said.

"I'm not saying it to make you feel bad, Remus," Sirius said. "I can't believe you go through that every month. The only thing that got me through it was the thought that it would only be once. As soon as that night was over, I'd never have to do it again. I don't know how you can handle it."

Remus shrugged. "I just… do, I guess."

Sirius was saved from answering by Peter and James returning with armfuls of delicious food. Sirius and Remus quickly let go of each other's hands and James and Peter made a show of dropping the food on the bed while Sirius hastily wiped his damp eyes.

* * *

><p>He'd been avoiding it for too long now, and he wished he'd dealt with it earlier. The more he'd put it off, the harder the prospect seemed to be.<p>

That very afternoon, he slunk into the library like a kicked puppy. He'd expected to find Brad in there, and he wasn't disappointed.

"I'm sorry," were the first words that tumbled out of Remus' mouth. Brad jumped about a mile, and Remus realised he hadn't been deliberately ignoring him; he really had been absorbed in the book he was reading.

"Merlin, Remus, you scared the pants off me," Brad said.

"I'm sorry," Remus said again. "And I'm sorry about yesterday, I really am. It's just that Sirius got injured in a duel that James and he were having and we had to take him to the hospital wing and tried to find you yesterday afternoon but I couldn't and I'm really sorry and-"

"Woah, woah," Brad interrupted, cutting him off. Remus was confused to see he was grinning. "Slow down. And relax. I figured when you didn't show that something else had come up. It's okay, I don't mind."

Remus blinked. "Really?" he said incredulously. "But I stood you up."

Brad shrugged. "You had a good reason," he said logically. "If you could have come, you would have. Now sit down; my neck's beginning to hurt looking up at you."

Remus realised he was still standing awkwardly beside the table Brad was at, and pulled out a seat. "You really aren't mad?" he asked. That wasn't how he'd expected the conversation to go.

Brad laughed. "Don't be daft. I'm not going to bite your head off for the littlest thing." He was quiet for a moment, then he asked, "How long until you take the potion?"

Remus had a feeling that he knew anyway. "Tomorrow." He felt a grin grow on his face, and Brad beamed back. They probably looked like idiots but Remus didn't care. He was beginning to feel ridiculously excited about the prospect.

"Tomorrow," Brad repeated.

Why did that word suddenly make Remus' stomach churn with nerves?


	7. Corrections and Canoodling

**Chameleon Changes Chapter 7**

_Corrections and Canoodling_

"On the count of three?" Sirius asked. Remus nodded tersely. "One… two… three."

At the same time, Remus and Sirius both tipped back their heads and gulped down the vile, green potion in their respective cups. Sirius made a face at the taste.

"Did it work? I don't feel any different." Sirius examined his hands, which still looked like Remus'.

"No, you don't look any different. You're still me." Both boys turned to Professor Slughorn, who was watching them worriedly.

"I don't understand," he muttered. "It should have worked. Admittedly, I've never brewed this potion before, because it's awfully specific, but I followed the instructions exactly and…."

Remus tuned him out, a dull sense of panic coiling in his belly. He'd relied on this potion to work. All his hopes had been put into the small amount of liquid that he just drank. If it didn't work….

The werewolf frowned as his head began spinning. He tried to blink to clear his vision, but his eyelids wouldn't respond to his command. Dizziness overtook him and he realised he was falling and he couldn't stop himself.

Then suddenly his limbs started to work once more, and he caught himself on a desk. When his vision returned to normal, he realised his perspective had changed – namely, he was a few metres to the left and a little bit shorter.

"What was that?" he asked, and almost jumped out of his skin when he heard himself. His voice was back to its quiet, controlled smoothness, instead of the harsher tone that came naturally to Sirius' body. "I'm me again?"

Sirius – who actually looked like Sirius now – glanced down at himself, then back to Remus, then back to himself again in surprise, as though he couldn't quite believe it. "Must be," he said, a grin splitting his face. Then he frowned. "This is weirder than I expected."

Professor Slughorn, who was still watching on, cleared his throat. Remus jumped, having completely forgotten about his presence. "I assume the potion worked, then?" he asked.

"Yes sir," Remus said. "Thank you." He glanced at Sirius meaningfully.

"Yes, thank you sir," Sirius added, although his tone was much less respectful. Slughorn didn't seem to notice.

"If you boys feel any strange sensations or experience side effects, you must let Madam Pomfrey or myself know immediately," he told them as he showed them out. "I don't believe anyone's used this potion in the last century, so we don't know what to expect."

Remus felt slightly alarmed. They hadn't told him that bit – probably with good reason. But then he chastised himself for being silly. It had worked, hadn't it? He was back in his own body once more, and that was all that mattered. It had all worked out in the end.

After Remus had profusely thanked Slughorn some more, they exited the classroom and made their escape up a flight of stairs. Remus watched in amusement as Sirius stretched and shook his limbs – a little like he was trying on new clothes that just didn't fit right.

"Blimey, this is weird," Sirius said.

"You've already said that," Remus said, unable to hide the laugh in his voice.

"But it _is_," Sirius all but whined. "I've gotten so used to being you that it feels weird being me again."

"I sort of know what you mean," Remus said, wrinkling his nose. "It feels a little… _itchy_, but in a good way. I imagine it's weirder for you because you're not used to transformations. Even though I've been you for ages, it feels normal to slip back into my own skin."

Sirius shrugged. "You're probably right." He wiggled his fingers experimentally once more, and then grinned widely at Remus. "But we're back to normal! Let's go find James and Pete. We can celebrate!"

"Uh," Remus said hesitantly, "I actually can't. I promised Brad I'd meet up with him… you know, now that I'm me again."

Sirius' face darkened. "Right," he said stiffly.

"Come on, Sirius, don't be like that," Remus said. He hated it when Sirius was angry at him. "You guys know me as me already. We can celebrate later. But Brad… he only knows me as you. We have… things… to work out."

Sirius' expression softened slightly. "Okay," he said, "I'll tell James and Pete."

"Thanks," Remus said gratefully.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again. "No problem," he mumbled, but Remus didn't think that was what he'd been going to say.

* * *

><p>James and Pete were waiting in the common room, and both of them leapt to their feet. "Sirius?" James asked at the same time Pete said "Remus?" Then they chorused together, "Did it work?"<p>

Sirius grinned. "Yeah, it's me."

"Where's Moony?" Pete asked.

"Gone to see Faire," Sirius said, almost managing to mask the sourness in his voice. "But listen, both of you. We need to talk about the _thing_." The thing, of course, was how they'd referred to the process of becoming animagi. "We haven't done much recently-"

"With a good reason," James interrupted indignantly. "You _were_ walking around in someone else's body, you know."

"I know," Sirius said impatiently, "but now I'm back to normal, which means we need to get moving again."

Pete looked around nervously. "Perhaps we should talk about this in the dorm," he suggested pointedly.

"Fine," Sirius said. "There's a book in Remus' trunk I need to get anyway."

They made their way up the curving stairs in grim silence. They reached the dorm, and Sirius made a beeline for Remus' bed. They'd long-since ceased worrying about each other's personal space, so he knew Remus wouldn't mind Sirius going through his things.

He pulled out the book that Remus had been reading from on the day of the unfortunate switch, and quickly flips to the page of the incantation. "Here," he said, pointing at an underlined word. "This is the word that was spelt wrong on the floor diagram. All we need to do is fix that on the diagram we did the other week, and then we can do exactly what we were supposed to be doing last time."

"What if that wasn't the only thing that was wrong?" James asked worriedly. "We don't really want a repeat of last time, do we? If we switch bodies with each other more than once, I think the teachers will get a little suspicious."

"Are you a man, or a mouse?" Sirius demanded. James frowned at him.

"Why would I be a mouse?" he asked, confused.

"It's a muggle saying I heard Remus use," said Sirius. "Forget it."

"It's a stupid saying."

"Look, do we want to become animagi or not?"

"Of course we do, Sirius, but it would be stupid to rush into anything and make any more mistakes. We should wait until Remus is free before we do anything."

"Or we could do it now," Sirius said pointedly.

"What's the rush?" James asked Sirius. "If we're not careful, something will go horribly wrong and we'll end up getting ourselves killed. After the last time, I think we can agree that caution is the better option."

"No, we can't," Sirius said stubbornly. He sat onto the bed and sighs. "Look, Prongs, you don't get it. I don't expect you to. But I've been through that transformation, and it's fucking awful. If we can make full moons for Remus even a little better, then it's worth it, and the sooner we do it, the better. I don't know how he manages to do it each month, knowing that he's got another, equally terrible transformation happening again in less than thirty days, and I don't want him going through any more of them alone than he has to."

James considered his words. "Was it really that bad?" he asked softly.

"It was worse than you could ever imagine. That's why I don't want to wait. According to the book we've been doing this from, it usually takes wizards three months to be able to transform properly after they've done this incantation thing. That's three months too long, James."

Pete, who'd been silent throughout the exchange, spoke up at this point. "Remus would have noticed if there was anything else wrong with the triangle," he said to James. "Surely it should be safe?"

James bit his lip. "I suppose so," he said. He considered Sirius' words for a moment longer, before his mouth twitched up in a confident smile. "Well, we've done the rest of the transformation faster than the book said to expect, haven't we?" he asked rhetorically. "If you say that you don't want Moony to go through another transformation on his own, then that's what we'll do."

"Sorry?" Sirius asked, confused.

"We have twenty-five days until the next full moon, right?" James said, getting up and walking over to his trunk. "Twenty-five days to become animagi. We've beaten worse odds."

"Do you really think we can do it?" Peter asked.

"I don't think we can," James said confidently, pulling out his invisibility cloak. "I know we can." He strode towards the doorway, before turning back to a surprised-looking Sirius. "Don't just sit around," he said to the other two. "Hurry it up. We've got transformations to make."

* * *

><p>Brad was, predictably, in the library when Remus found him. "Hey," he said, sitting down. Brad looks up at him, his expression confused, and it's only then that Remus thought to add, "It's me, by the way."<p>

Brad's expression cleared instantly. "Remus!" he exclaimed quietly, his voice full of enthusiasm. "Is that actually you?"

"Yeah," Remus said with a shy smile. "Do you… do you want to go somewhere?"

Brad seemed at a loss as to where they could go, so Remus led them down to the lake. It was a bit chilly, but that meant that no one else was there to notice them or overhear what they were talking about.

"Is it strange?" Brad asked as they took a seat underneath a large willow. They were surrounded by the tree's drooping leaves, and sitting so the castle was on the other side of the trunk. They were totally alone. "You know, being back in your body?"

Remus opened his mouth to tell him the truth, but then remembered what Sirius had said. It wasn't normal for Remus to switch forms so easily. '_More lies,'_ he thought to himself. "A bit," Remus told Brad. "I think I got used to looking like Sirius, and now it's a little odd to have changed _again_."

"It's better being yourself though, right?"

"Definitely," Remus said with a grin. "Being Sirius was such a hassle. He's completely the opposite of me, and I had to pretend to _be_ him."

"I still find it hard to grasp that you're actually the person I've been going out with," Brad admitted. "It's so strange. I feel like I'm talking to a stranger in some moments, but then you do something that I remember you doing when you were Sirius and I think, 'how can I not see that it's really him?'"

"Really?" Remus asked, surprised. "What do I do that reminds you I'm me?"

Brad smiled shyly. "Well, to start with, you rub your wrist when you're nervous… or when you're lying."

Remus was surprised that Brad had noticed that of him. _He_ hadn't even known that he did that. "Do I?" he asked, baffled. Then Brad's words sunk in. "Wait, you know when I'm lying?"

"I was hoping you're just a very nervous person," Brad grinned ruefully. He reached out and took Remus' hand in his own. Remus was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, and the other boy carefully pushed the fabric out of his way. Remus' breath hitched.

"How'd you get this?" Brad asked, tracing his finger over Remus' scar. The touch was light and gentle, but Remus still had to resist the urge to yank his hand away.

"I got it when I was a kid," Remus said. That part, at least was true. "I was playing with my dad's wand and I guess I said something, or waved it a certain way, because it discharged a bolt of magic that got me on the wrist." That part was definitely _not _true, and Remus was careful to keep his other hand well away from his wrist. "It didn't even cut very deep or anything – it was barely a scratch. But I guess it was like some of those spells we studied in Defence Against the Dark Arts last month, where they are almost impossible to heal without the use of complex potions, because the cut closed over alright but the scar never went away."

All the time Remus had been talking, Brad had been moving his thumb slowly along the mark. It was sort of relaxing, but at the same time it gave Remus a peculiar feeling that was not dissimilar to having butterflies in his stomach. His eyes met Brad's, and he felt a jolt of… something, shoot through him. He realised suddenly that this was the moment they'd been waiting for ever since Remus had told Brad who he really was.

With an agonising slowness, Brad brought his hand up to cup Remus' cheek. Remus' mind went into overdrive. Where was he supposed to put his hands? Brad was still holding one of his wrists, so that one was probably okay, but what about the other hand? Should he be doing something with it? What about his legs? They were sitting in a position that would probably make kissing rather awkward. Should he move?

Something of his panic must have shown in his eyes, because Brad offers him a reassuring smile. "Stop thinking," he whispers. Remus would have liked to tell him that that would be impossible, or that if he was to stop thinking then how was he going to know if he was doing it right, but he couldn't quite get the words out because, at that moment, Brad leant down and kissed him.

It was soft and slow and, while it didn't stop Remus' mind from racing ahead at a hundred miles an hour, it did give him other things to think about.

He opened his mouth slightly into the kiss, and then panicked because what if that was too forward and he wasn't supposed to do that until later? But only a few seconds later Brad did the same. Then, suddenly, there was tongue and why were they not doing this before? Remus' hand, that he'd been so worried about before, instinctively flew to Brad's hips. He pulled the other boy a little closer so that he was resting more comfortably on Remus' leg.

Eventually Brad pulled back and, while Remus would have liked it to go on for just a little longer, the other boy did settle himself comfortably against Remus' side, and the werewolf found it was the easiest thing in the world to wrap his arm around Brad's shoulder. He also found it required little contortion to bend down and kiss him again.

They spent the next half-hour like this, talking about unimportant things and kissing when they ran out of things to found that he was comfortable in a way he never had been before, and he half-wished that it would never end.

* * *

><p>"You still want to go first, Sirius?" James asked. Sirius nodded firmly. "Let's do this."<p>

"Are you sure you can still remember the incantation?" James checked.

Sirius grinned. "You're turning into Remus." But he recited the string of Latin words all the same.

When he was done, James noded stiffly, and Sirius stepped into the triangle. A hesitant look crossed his face.

"For Remus," James reminded him, and Sirius' resolve visibly firmed.

"For Remus," he agreed.

* * *

><p>After they'd lain by the lake for an extended amount of time, Brad dragged Remus back up to castle to introduce him to his friends. Well, not 'introduce' exactly, as Remus had gone to school with them for five and a bit years now. But he only realises then that he's barely spoken to all but two of Brad's group.<p>

They were all perfectly lovely, but Remus finds the polite chatter slightly awkward. He stuck it out though, and when Brad decided they need to be somewhere else, he mused that at least he didn't make a total prat of himself.

"I think they liked you," Brad said to him after they'd gone. His voice is pleased.

Remus was a little surprised. "Really? How could you tell?"

"They're not nearly as nice when they dislike someone," Brad said. "Believe me, you'd know if they disapproved of you."

That cheered Remus up a little. "What's that?" he asked, nodding at the heading on the front page of the _Daily Prophet_ that Brad had grabbed.

The Ravenclaw's face darkened. "Bad news." He unfolded it so the whole article was visible. Below the heading and a smattering of writing were four photographs of four different people. It took Remus a moment to work out why they look unusual.

"They're not moving," he said, frowning. "Why…?"

"They're a family of muggles who were killed by Death Eaters. There were no wizarding photographs of them."

"Wizards _killed _them? Why?"

"Because they're muggles," Brad said darkly. "Because they don't have magic. Because their blood is filthy, and their rightful place is under the rule of wizard kind."

Remus was shocked. "Who would actually _believe_ that rubbish?"

Brad looked at him strangely. "Have you been living under a rock?" he asked curiously.

"No," Remus said indignantly. "I might have been a bit pre-occupied but…," he trailed off. "I have _heard_of Death Eaters," he said, trying to redeem himself. "But I just thought they were some tiny group. There have been heaps of them over the time I've been at Hogwarts. They fizzle out pretty quickly." Then, a sudden wave of doubt swept over him. "Right?"

"Usually they do," Brad admitted. "But not these ones. You remember how we learnt about Grindelwald in History of Magic?"

"For the greater good," Remus quoted grimly.

"Right," Brad agreed. "Well, these guys make his domination of Europe look tame. At least Grindelwald wanted to help muggles, after a fashion."

"That's debatable," Remus pointed out.

Brad shrugged. "I didn't mean it like that. But he was slightly more indifferent to them; he wanted wizard kind to take their place over them, but he didn't regard them as slaves… more as servants. These Death Eaters… if they get into power… well, I wouldn't want to be a muggle. And muggle-borns are on their hit list as well."

"Muggle-borns?" Remus asked. "Even though they're wizards and witches too?"

"It's basically old Salazar's prejudice in the twentieth century," said Brad. "Pretty much the same policy, too. If they don't conform, kill them."

Remus thought briefly of the myth of the Chamber of Secrets. "Aren't the ministry _doing_ anything about this?" he asks. "If they're such a big threat?"

Brad snorts. "The ministry? They might have been a powerful force in Britain once, but their true power died with the disbanding of the army back in the eighteen hundreds."

"The army?" This wasn't something Remus remembered learning about in history of magic.

"Yeah. We used to have a powerful international presence, but then all the major countries signed a disarmament treaty back in eighteen seventy-two – you know, France, Romania, America, Switzerland, Italy, those countries – and the army got turned into the aurors. They're effective for crushing minor instances of civil unrest, but they're not capable of dealing with a full scale invasion – or a civil war. It's the same all over the world; in fact, that's what made it so easy for Grindelwald to take over Europe."

"How do you know all this?" Remus asked in amazement.

He hadn't thought it was possible, but Brad's face turned even more grim. "I've been researching. We all have. There's a war coming, and if we aren't ready then we won't survive."

"You think so?" Remus asked doubtfully. It seemed a little fanciful, the idea that the stable, government-run wizarding world might be swept up in a war against fascism.

"I'd bet a lot on it," Brad said. "And being prepared won't do us any harm if we're wrong."

"We?" Remus asked, picking up on the pronoun for the first time.

"We." Brad confirms. "My friends and I. There are more who know what's happening, and are preparing for it, but we don't talk to each other too much."

"You're sixteen," Remus points out. "You've still got another two years at school."

"One and a half years. And some of us are leaving at the end of the year. Even more are seventh years."

Remus had a sneaking suspicion that he was gazing at a small space on a much bigger portrait – like he all he was being shown was the spot on the Fat Lady's nose. "How many of you are there?" he asks.

"About twenty Ravenclaws, from years five to seven," Brad shrugs. "Hufflepuff have about the same number. Not quite as many Gryffindors, and there are none from our year-"

"Why not?" Remus interrupts.

Brad hesitates. "Well, I suppose, historically, Gryffindor has always had a greater tie with Slytherin, and the Death Eaters are a largely Slytherin-based organisations. There are reasons why it's always Hufflepuff-and-Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor-and-Slytherin." The way he said it made the names run together, like they were one thing as opposed to two individuals.

"That wouldn't matter," Remus said certainly. "This is a choice between right and wrong, and what the Death Eaters are doing is _wrong_."

"Yes, but in general, Gryffindors would rather not choose sides if they can help it."

"Godric Gryffindor joined with Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw to expel Slytherin," Remus points out. "He chose what was right over what was easy."

"Did he really?" Brad asked. "Is one against three really easier than two against two?"

Remus was getting a little annoyed. "You're making all Gryffindors sound like cowards," he said, his irritability showing in his voice.

Brad sighed. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to. It's just… think about it this way. How many muggle borns are there in our year?"

"I don't know," Remus said, a little shortly. "I don't keep track on everyone's blood status. Five? Maybe ten?"

"Nine," Brad said. "And how many of those would be in Slytherin?"

"Well, none," Remus said slowly. "They only let in purebloods."

"And half-bloods," added Brad. "So that's nine muggleborns in three houses. Now how many of those nine do you think are in Gryffindor?"

Remus thought about it. He should know this one, at least. Sirius, James, and Peter were all pureblooded. He was a half-blood. He was pretty sure most of the girls were pureblooded. A few of them must be muggleborn, though. There was Lily, and….

"The only Gryffindor sixth year who I know is a muggleborn is Lily," he admitted.

Brad's eyes were boring deep into his, encouraging him to understand. "That's because she's the only one," he says gently. And Remus understands what he's getting at.

"How many do you have?" he asked.

"Four." Which left four for Hufflepuff.

"We're a small year," he argues. "All the other years have five or six Gryffindor boys. We only have four."

"Seventh year has six boys and six girls," Brad says. "And they have two muggleborns, out of the ten in that year."

Remus did the math, and it still left an awful lot of muggleborns for the two other houses. His mouth felt a little dry. "I don't have a problem with muggleborns," he said. "None of my friends do, either. Sirius owns a muggle motorbike. James is in love with a muggleborn." He'd always scoffed at James' crush on Lily, but now seemed a good time to bring it up.

Brad must have noticed Remus' tone, because he hastened to reassure him. "I'm not accusing you, Remus," he said quickly. "Not at all. I'm just saying that, like Slytherin, Gryffindor is a slightly more traditional house, as opposed to Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, who are a bit more liberal."

"We'd still make the right choice," Remus says. "When it comes down to it."

"I'm sure you will," Brad replies, and gives him a quick kiss. "I never doubted that. I'm just explaining why the Gryffindor's seemed to have missed all the warning signs."

"So what do you guys do, anyway?" Remus asked, needing to steer the topic into safer waters. "Study past wars, or something?"

"Only us Ravenclaws," Brad smiled. "We're nerds in that respect. But also defensive spells, offensive spells, tactics... one of my friends had a brother who was an auror, and he got hold of one of his old text books on using the environment against your opponent. We magically copied it and handed it around. Just… whatever can help us. I mean, it's not like we're organised… but we're doing our best."

Remus smiled. He had to admit, he wouldn't have thought that so many people in their year would have such spirit when it came to fighting such an uncertain battle. "And what do you and your disorganised band of students plan to do when you get out there?"

Brad smiled at this, a wide confident grin. "We're going to join the only group that can stand up to the Death Eaters. We're going to join the Order of the Phoenix."

* * *

><p>The transformation wasn't anything that Sirius had ever felt before – and he'd been through more full-body transformations than the average person over just these past few weeks.<p>

The werewolf transformation had been a painful, bone-crunching, nauseous ordeal that left Sirius in no hurry to repeat it. When he'd returned to his own body, it had been more a transfer of consciousness than anything else. Polyjuice made him feel ill, and human transformation in Transfiguration class just felt like a sort of itching sensation.

This was nothing like _any _of those. It felt wonderful, freeing… natural. Like his body was supposed to slip into this form. Like he'd been trapped in a cold, dark dingy room for a long time, and someone just opened a door and ushered him through into a room with carpet and comfortable chairs and tea and biscuits and sunlight streaming in through the gleaming windows.

When he checked again, his hands and feet were paws and instead of clothes he was wearing a gleaming black coat. His breath came in pants and almost unconsciously his tongue rolled from his mouth as his tail began to wag. _Hm, _he thought. _Strange. Who would have thought those two actions were subconsciously connected._

His sight was a little worse off, but his hearing was incredible. It was so sensitive he could hear James and Peter's breathing from the other end of the tunnel. And his smell – his _smell! _ He could tell that James had just eaten something with beef in it for lunch, and that Pete had been outside today because his clothes smelt the same as the Hogwarts grounds. Sirius didn't even realise he knew the smell of the Hogwarts grounds that well, but apparently doggy-Sirius did.

Dogs couldn't grin, but they could wag their tails. Sirius did so – furiously. He was one step closer to helping Moony.


	8. Contentions and Copper Cauldrons

**Chameleon Changes Chapter 8**

_Contentions and Copper Cauldrons_

For the hundredth time in an extremely short period, James shook his head like an animal with a new collar. Peter smirked; Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I can still feel the antlers," James complained. "It's a really weird feeling!"

"Trust me, Prongs," Sirius said, "you don't have antlers."

It'd been four days since the three of them had successfully morphed into their animagi forms, and all three of them still couldn't help but grin when they remembered their success. Sirius couldn't wait to do it again.

"I did though!" enthused James. "Did you see them? Did they look like manly antlers? They _felt _manly."

"They looked brilliant," Sirius said. The sarcasm in his voice was not lost on James.

"You're just jealous," he said haughtily. "You're only a common dog." He snorted in derision.

Sirius shook his head in exasperation. "Come on, James," he said seriously. "We need to focus."

"I hear the words you're saying," James said, "but I can hardly believe that it's you saying them." He grinned.

Sirius shot him a look that might have had a lesser man cowering. James rolled his eyes at his friend's serious expression. "What, so I can't make a joke now?" he demanded.

"Remus-"

"Yes, I know all about Remus," James said. "And we really are doing the best we can. You need to chill out."

"We need to buckle down and-"

Once more, James interrupted him. "Alright, alright, I'm buckling down." He picked up the book lying on the table and waved it in the air to prove his point. "See? I'm reading."

Sirius frowned, but let it slide. "Where's Moony when you need him?" he said after a few minutes. "I haven't even heard of _half_ of these ingredients, let alone know how to get them."

"Where is Remus, anyway?" Peter asked. "Does he even know where we are?"

"No, I forgot to tell him," Sirius said. "I barely saw him at all last night."

They'd eagerly told Remus about the transformation when they'd returned to the common room, and after half an hour of admonishments for doing something so risky and dangerous, he'd congratulated them and the group had sat down to plan the next step. They had to brew a potion that would naturally change them into their animals so they could experience how the transformation would feel. That was the last step; after they'd taken the potion, they had to transform on their own.

"We should ask him about these ingredients, Padfoot," James said. "He might recognise the names of some of them. It'd be much quicker than searching through hundreds of textbooks in an attempt for passages that might mention some."

"You're probably right," Sirius sighed. Remus had delegated himself the task of finding the extremely specific equipment required for the task of brewing the potion. The other Marauders had been happy to let him do that; if anyone could find out how to get hold of a size twelve, twenty-two per cent copper cauldron, then that person would be Remus. Unfortunately, finding the ingredients for the potion wasn't turning out to be as easy as the other three Marauders had anticipated. "Where's the Map?" Sirius got to his feet. "I'll go find him."

"Up in the dorm," Peter said, barely looking up from '_Aquatic Creatures and their Use in Potions'_. "Under James' bed."

Sirius didn't even bother to ask what it was doing under there, or why Peter knew that information so specifically. Instead he quietly made his way from the library, careful not to meet the beady eyes of Madam Pince on the way out. That woman simply _did not like him_. It was unjust, he thought to himself. Apart from losing or destroying the odd book, he and James hadn't _really _done anything to her since their third year! Talk about holding a grudge….

The Map told Sirius that Remus was in a second floor secret passageway with – surprise, surprise – Brad. _'Probably studying together,'_ Sirius thought to himself. _'Although it's strange that they're not doing it in the library.'_. He barely got to see Remus anymore, except for in class. He'd been spending most of his free time with Brad.

It wasn't that Sirius begrudged the werewolf his happiness – because Remus _was _undeniably happier. Even Sirius, who wasn't the most observant person in the world, had been able to see that in the small amount of time he'd spent with Remus since they'd switched bodies and their worlds had turned upside down. But no matter how pleased Sirius was that Remus had found someone to make him happy, he couldn't help the little niggling feeling that made its presence known whenever Sirius saw Brad and Remus together.

He tried to tell himself that it was because he didn't like Brad. The Ravenclaw annoyed him; he was too nerdy, too quiet, and spending too much time with Remus. Sirius made a point to ignore the fact that he didn't really mind the first two points at all.

He tried not to dwell on what Lily had said to him that day in charms, and he'd banished the world 'jealous' to the furthest reaches of his mind. Unfortunately, the furthest reaches just weren't far enough.

'_What do I have to be jealous of, anyway?' _he thought to himself, kicking the foot of a suit of armour as he walked past. It made a ghastly clanging noise, causing Sirius to look around furtively before hurrying on. _'Remus is allowed other friends. Even if they do take up all of his time.'_

With this resolution set in his mind, he reached the portrait that hid the entrance to the passageway. He tapped the pudgy wizard in the painting directly on the nose, ignoring the "Hey! Not so hard!" he got in return. He couldn't fault the picture for being sour; it can't be much fun just sitting there all day, waiting for the next person who'll come along just for them to bop you on the nose.

The painting swung outwards to reveal a doorway. The candles that usually lit themselves whenever someone stepped into the passage were already illuminating the cramped corridor. Sirius didn't need the candlelight to tell him that Remus and Brad were definitely still there, though, because the sight that greeted Sirius as he stepped through the doorway made that fact quite clear.

The pair pulled apart as the light from the hallway flooded the tunnel, but by the time they separated, Sirius had already seen enough. Remus had Brad pushed up against the wall, doing something that was not dissimilar to sucking his face off. Sirius didn't know how far they were planning to go, but he guessed that they intended it to be more than a session of innocent snogging seeing as Brad's shirt was off and Remus, when he turned around, had his fly and top button undone.

"Sorry," Sirius murmured instinctively, backing out of the passageway. Once, walking in on Remus while he was halfway to shagging someone might have led him to laugh, smile, and make sexual innuendoes at Remus for the next six months. Now, he couldn't get away fast enough.

He slammed the portrait door shut, ignoring the shouts of "Be _gentler_!" by the portrait. He walked quickly in the opposite direction… but not quickly enough. He was only walking for a few seconds before the ominous sound of the portrait swinging open filled his ears, and hurried footsteps pounded on the cold floor behind him.

"Sirius!" Remus gasped out as he caught up to him. "Sirius, look at me!"

Sirius stopped walking and whirled around. Remus' hair and shirt were ruffled and his mouth looked a little red, although at least he'd had the presence of mind to do his jeans up. "Don't let me disturb you," he spat out. He didn't know why he was so angry about what he'd seen, but right at that moment he would have preferred to be anywhere but there. "You looked a little busy."

Remus recoiled at the venom in his voice. "What's your problem?" he demanded. "You knew I was with Brad. What, have you decided you're not okay with it now that you've seen us kissing?"

"It looked like more than kissing to me!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Well it wasn't. Don't act all wronged here; you barely saw anything."

"I saw enough!" Sirius yelled back. Before Remus could reply, he'd turned his back on the werewolf and rounded the corner.

Remus didn't follow, and soon Sirius' fast pace slowed down to a normal walk. He was breathing heavily, but he didn't think that it had anything to do with his speed. He realised he was walking in the wrong direction and headed down a side corridor that would lead him back to the library.

As the heat of the moment began to wear off, Sirius started to calm down. He could feel the seeds of regret begin to sow themselves in his mind. He probably shouldn't have yelled at Remus like that. It hadn't really been his fault, it was just that Sirius had been….

Had been what? Taken by surprise? He certainly had been, but that didn't explain his reaction. He'd been shocked? A little, but that didn't excuse him yelling at Remus like that. The obvious answer would be that Sirius was a prejudiced git just like his parents, and that he'd been disgusted by his friend's homosexuality.

But he wasn't. He couldn't name the many, many emotions that swept through him when he'd walked into the passageway to see what he'd seen, but he was almost one hundred per cent certain that disgust had not been one of them.

He blinked as a wooden door loomed in his vision, and he realised with some surprise that he was at the library already. His feet had carried him there without any direction from his mind, which was too swept up in thoughts of Remus to have any sense of direction. He pushed open the door and found the table James and Peter were sitting at.

"Where's Remus?" James asked as Sirius sat down silently.

"He's busy," Sirius said shortly.

"Too busy to help?" Peter asked sceptically.

Sirius shrugged. "He looked busy, so I elected not to tell him." A sense of frustration swept over him and he stood up violently, knocking over the chair. "If you've finished giving me the third degree, I'm going back up to the dormitory."

"What about the research?" Peter asked.

"I'll take the books with me," Sirius snapped, scooping a pile of them up off the table. He stalked away before he could see the look James exchanged with Sirius.

* * *

><p>"I don't know what's with him," Remus sighed. "Do you think he hates me because I like blokes?"<p>

"I don't know," Brad replied. "You did say that you thought he was okay with it."

"Doesn't look like it, though, does it?" Remus pointed out.

The pair were sitting comfortably in a tree by the lake, staring out at the expanse of clear water. Well, Brad was staring out at it; Remus had somehow manoeuvred himself so that he was lying along the branch with his head in his boyfriend's lap. Occasionally, Brad would absentmindedly stroke Remus' hair, and Remus thought that if he was a cat, he would most definitely be purring.

"Maybe it just shocked him?" Brad suggested. "I mean, imagine if you'd walked in on him kissing a guy you don't really like. You might react the same way."

"Yeah, but he knew we were together," Remus pointed out. "So it's not like _that _was what surprised him. Besides, he knew where I was, so he had to know you were with me. What did he expect we'd be doing?"

Brad frowned. "How _did_ he know where we were? And why would he know that you were with me?"

Remus' head was resting pretty heavily on Brad's leg, so he probably felt the werewolf stiffen. "I probably shouldn't have said that," he said carefully.

Brad sighed. "More secrets?" he asked.

His tone was accepting. Remus could tell he didn't like the fact that Remus hid so much from him, but clearly Brad was too much of a gentleman to press him for answers. This just made the guilt rise up in Remus; how on earth did he manage to find someone so perfect?

"No," he said determinedly. "I'll tell you this one." He sat up, and said quickly, "But you have to promise to keep it to yourself," he said, "because it is a secret, really. And I'm not sure it's entirely legal."

Brad smiled. "This sounds like it'll be interesting," he commented. Then, he added, "I solemnly swear I won't tell anyone."

Remus frowned a little at his word choice, but hurriedly smoothed his expression. "Alright," he said reluctantly. "See, we have this map…."

And he described to Brad what it did, some of the things they'd used it for, how it worked, and gave a detailed description of how they'd made it.

Brad was mostly interested in the latter points; something which only endeared him to Remus even more. James and Sirius might be clever, but there was a reason the sorting hat had put them in Gryffindor rather than Ravenclaw. When it came to the researching for pranks, ideas, and adventures, the task largely fell to him. Even with the Map, which had involved a large amount of research, Remus had done the majority of the bookwork, while the cartography had been left to Peter and the spellwork to James and Sirius. The other three Marauders just hadn't been interested in the theory behind the Map.

But Brad was, and Remus couldn't help thinking that making the map would have been much more enjoyable if Brad had been helping him. He did love his friends, but they'd left him alone for hours on end when he was researching how to make the map.

"That's incredible!" Brad exclaimed as Remus finished explaining what they'd done to make it. "That's absolutely amazing. Those must have been well beyond NEWT-level spells."

"Well, yes," Remus said modestly. "Although it took us a while."

"I'm not surprised," Brad said. "How are you not in Ravenclaw?" It wasn't the first time he'd expressed such sentiments, and Remus laughed.

"I guess the sorting hat might have got it wrong this one time," he said.

Brad shook his head, still wondering at the complexity of the Marauder's Map. "You could do _anything_ when you leave school," he said. "If you made that when you were _fifteen_…."

The awe in his voice was beginning to make Remus uncomfortable. "Well, there were four of us," he said modestly. "And none of the other three are exactly stupid. I didn't do it alone."

"Even so," Brad said, "that's _amazing_."

"I bet you could have done it," Remus said. The praise was making him blush, but he felt a little like he was being scrutinized. As a werewolf who'd been forced to hide his condition all his life, the feeling wasn't the most pleasant thing he'd ever felt.

Brad shook his head. "Maybe," he conceded, "but I definitely would never have thought up the idea."

"Well, we probably wouldn't have thought it up if it hadn't been sort of necessary," he said.

"Necessary?" Brad asked.

Remus could have hit himself. Maybe it was because he was so happy, here alone with Brad, or maybe it was just because the Ravenclaw made him feel more comfortable than almost anyone else in the world – as comfortable as he felt around the other Marauders – but he kept forgetting that he couldn't _tell _him stuff.

"Yeah, for the pranks," he made up quickly. "It's hard brewing secret potions without knowing who might walk in on you."

The potions part was true; the pranks part wasn't. It was an idea the four of them had come up with when they'd been struggling to find places to become animagi. They knew a whole list of secret passageways and hidey-holes that were hidden throughout Hogwarts, but the problem was that, for the majority of them, they weren't the only people who knew about them. In the first four years of Hogwarts, they'd learnt the hard way that if they found a secret of Hogwarts, there was a high chance that at least one other person knew about it and used it regularly.

It'd been very amusing when they'd first discovered it – usually by walking in on two senior students snogging (or worse). But when they'd wanted to use these places for themselves for extended periods of time (some potions took weeks or months to brew) it was impossible to know which places would keep their secrets and in which places their secrets would be discovered.

"Can I see the map?" Brad asked eagerly.

"Sure," Remus said. "I think Sirius might have it at the moment, but I'll try and show it to you tomorrow."

* * *

><p>"You've been avoiding me."<p>

Sirius looked up in surprise as a girl with dark brown hair sat down next to him. He was sulking in the Quidditch stands; Remus had ignored him all last night, and that had caused him to wake up in a foul mood. Admittedly, he'd ignored the werewolf right back, but that didn't excuse Remus' behaviour. James and Peter had stayed well out of the situation, refusing to be baited in. James had gone so far as to leave the room when Sirius started talking loudly (within Remus' hearing) about people who didn't spend any time with their friends, saying as he escaped, "If you want to have an argument with Moony, Padfoot, have it with him."

"I have not," Sirius said indignantly. "I just… sort of forgot about you. I've had a lot going on."

The girl laughed. Sirius would have liked to be able to say it was musical, but unfortunately it sounded like it had been musical once, but then someone had decided to combine that music with the cackling of a witch. The result was a _very_ unusual giggle, but it was pleasant in a familiar kind of way. "Nice to know I'm so forgettable." There was no anger in her voice, although Sirius wouldn't have blamed her if there had been. It wasn't the most tactful thing he'd ever come out with.

"Don't be like that, Melissa. You know I didn't mean it to sound like that."

"Didn't you?" Melissa raised her eyebrow sceptically. Sirius looked away from her gaze in answer. "So what's had you so distracted?"

"Oh, you know," Sirius said vaguely. "Life."

"Wow, nice description," she said sarcastically. "Real detailed."

"I don't have to tell you everything, you know," Sirius snapped. "Believe it or not, there are parts of my life I don't share with my stalker."

As soon as he said the words, he wished he could take them back. He saw the flash of hurt in her eyes and watched her smile fade. "I'm sorry," he said quickly, "I didn't mean that."

"Didn't you?" Melissa replied sadly, looking out over the empty Quidditch Pitch. "If you don't mean things then why do you say them?"

"I know that was a low blow," Sirius replied. He knew very well Melissa had a pretty intense crush on him, and he felt bad for using it to lash out at her. He should know better; just because she wouldn't yell back at him didn't mean he could take his feelings out on her. "I'm angry with someone," he admitted. "But you don't deserve my snarky comments."

"No, I don't," she said thoughtfully. He rolled his eyes, wishing she could be a little less… vague.

"You should probably leave me alone to stew," he advised her. "I won't be pleasant company."

"What sort of friend would I be if I abandoned you at your lowest moment?" she asked lightly.

"My friend," Sirius replied quickly. "The sort of friends James and Peter are."

"So you're angry with them?" Melissa asked. "No, wait, don't tell me. You're angry with Lupin, and they've taken his side."

"You're enjoying this," Sirius observed.

Melissa shrugged. "I like guessing. I'll be enjoying myself if I'm right."

"You're spot on."

"Ha!" she exclaimed triumphantly, punching the air. Then, with almost comic speed, her expression turned solemn and she said to Sirius sombrely, "I'm sorry you're upset."

"Yeah, well, so am I," he said bitterly.

"So what's Lupin done?" she asked.

"Stop being interferring."

"No."

"Well I'm not telling you anything."

"Fine."

They looked at each other seriously for a few seconds. Her lips twitched, and Sirius had to look away as a smile broke out across his face.

"Ha!" she said again. "You lose! You smiled!"

"No, I didn't!" But his protest wasn't very convincing considering the fact that he was still smiling widely.

"See, it's much better having friends to cheer you up," Melissa chirped.

"Yeah," Sirius said non-committedly. Then he leaned across and kissed her.

She froze as his lips touched hers, probably from shock. He turned around a little on the seats so that he was in a better position, and his hand found her knee.

The touch seemed to jolt her awake. She pulled back slightly. "Sirius!" she exclaimed. "What…?"

She trailed off as he leaned forwards again, cupping her face with his hand. "Don't talk," he whispered, and his face was so close to hers that his breath skimmed across her cheek and blew at the loose strands of hair that had escaped from behind her ear. "You'll ruin it." And he kissed her again.

Her eyes flickered closed and her soft lips parted. She was really quite pretty, Sirius thought to himself, as he moved even closer to her. He'd never been attracted to her before, that was true, but it was probably because she had that girl-next-door kind of look. She was beautiful in her own way; you just had to look closer to see it. And he'd never been as close as he was now.

His other hand moved from her cheek down to her shoulder. Her own hands, which had been sitting idly in her lap as she adjusted to the surprise of the kiss, moved to Sirius' body where they rested on her hips.

Suddenly, with no prompting whatsoever, she pulled back once more. "What's wrong?" Sirius asked, already moving towards her again.

"No," she said, leaping to her feet. "Stop."

Sirius stopped. He might be a player, might have gone out with more than one girl at one time before, he might often sleep with girls with no intention of dating them, and he might have little regard for their feelings more often than not, but he did know what that word meant.

"Why?" he demanded. "I thought you wanted this."

"No," Melissa said sadly. "I never wanted this."

"You like me, don't you?"

"That's not the point."

"Yes it is!" Sirius exclaimed. Why did girls have to be so frustratingly complex?

"Do you like me, Sirius?" she asked.

"Of course I do. I wouldn't have kissed you, otherwise."

"Liar." The word had no venom, just a sense of impending sadness. "You're filled with negative emotions, and you want some way to vent those emotions. You think that kissing me, or sleeping with me, or whatever you intended to do, will give you that. But I don't want that. I have too much self-respect."

"So much self-respect that you spend your bloody life following me around like a pathetic puppy-dog?" Sirius bit out. He knew that those words, so like his earlier ones, were also undeserved, but he didn't feel the compulsion to withdraw them. He was hurt that she'd rejected him like that.

"Enough respect to know that I don't want to get my heart broken by you, Sirius Black," Melissa replied calmly. "Because I know how this ends. You'd use me and then toss me aside like all the rest."

"I wouldn't-"

"Don't lie, Sirius. I don't care if you lie to me, because I can see through them. But you have to stop lying to yourself."

"I've never _used_ a girl."

"You've never cared for one. Never _truly_ cared."

"I have so!"

"Name one girl who you regret breaking up with," she challenged him.

And he found that he couldn't.

She smiled at him sadly. "I'll see you around, Sirius."

He made no attempt to stop her as she turned and left. His eyes followed her retreating form as she made her way down the steps and onto the pitch, but he didn't see her. Instead, he looked right through her, and wondered what exactly he was seeing.

You can ignore hundreds and hundreds of people who criticize you. You can ignore your girlfriend, your best friends, your parents, your teachers, your enemies. You can even ignore yourself. But when your semi-friend-slash-stalker starts telling you what's what… well, at that point, you really do have to start listening.


	9. Confrontations and Coquetting

He deserved the silent treatment, he supposed. He'd been a dick; he knew that. But it still hurt when Remus swept out of the dorm without saying a word to him the next morning.

"You need to apologise," James said seriously, in the silence the slam of the door had left.

"Why do you always assume I was the one who did something wrong?" Sirius complained, pulling a sock onto his left foot despite the fact it didn't match the one on his right.

"Because you always do," replied James, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"And Moony never does anything wrong," Pete chipped in chirpily.

"Exactly," James grinned. "He's perfect. Now go apologise. We'll be down for breakfast in a moment."

"I'm not apologising," Sirius said stubbornly. "He's overreacting."

"I doubt that," Peter said under his breath.

"Did you do something wrong?" James asked sceptically.

"Well…," Sirius said, kicking one of the many items of clothing lying around his bed. "Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"Yeah, I suppose I did."

James rolled his eyes. "Then go down and apologise!"

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because."

James let out a groan of frustration. "Learn to swallow your pride, Sirius," he said. "There's only so much people can take. Even Remus."

They made their way down to breakfast without another word on the subject and took their seats beside Remus, who'd already started on his toast. He was frowning as he thumbed through a large book, and every few seconds he'd cross-reference something in there with a piece of parchment he had on the other side of his plate.

"Watcha doing, Moony?" James asked cheerily, reaching for the pumpkin juice.

"Research," Remus replied. He frowned and then grinned to himself. Smoothly he pulled out his wand and tapped one of the words on the page lightly. The other three marauders watched as it turned orange before their very eyes.

"Pretty," James said disinterestedly, pouring himself some cereal. "Is there a point to your rainbow paper?"

"No, I just wanted to do it for the effect," Remus said sarcastically, closing the book with a snap. He took another bite of his toast. "Of course there's a point," he said after he'd swallowed. "This is a list of all the ingredients we'll need to filch for the potion. Green is stuff we can get from the student stores, orange is things that we'll need to break into Slughorn's private stores to get, and there's one I've left black because I think we'll probably need to find some sort of dodgy supplier and buy it illegally."

"No problem," Sirius said. "I know heaps of those." His voice was genuine, and the other three looked up curiously. "Family connections," he said simply, in reply to their unspoken question. "I might be disowned, but dodgy suppliers generally don't say no to gold, no matter how much of a blood traitor you are."

"Good," Remus said coolly. "You can get onto buying that. Meanwhile, we'll need to come up with a new plan for getting into Slughorn's back room. I think he's catching onto the whole 'firework in the potion' idea. There's only so many times we can do that before he starts checking to see who's not in the room right after it goes off."

"We could use Pete as a decoy?" James suggested, after a moment's thought. "Get him to make an exploding potion that might possibly injure someone? That won't look suspicious; I don't think he's made a potion correctly in the whole time we've been here. No offense, Pete," he added as an afterthought.

"None taken," Peter replied. "I have no objections. My potions grade can't _possibly_ get worse."

"How _did_ you get into sixth year potions?" Sirius asked Peter curiously.

"Theoretical grade," he said glumly. "Remus helped me study for the exams. And I got a half-mark for the practical last year, even if it melted the cauldron right at the end."

"Lucky," Sirius grinned.

"We're making calming draughts again next week," Remus said. "Narwhal pus would react really well with Sleepwort… well, actually, it would react really badly, which is what we want. And the bottle looks like essence of lavender, which we need to put in the potion. Pete can just say he misread the instructions if Slughorn gets suspicious."

"A week?" Sirius said sharply. "That's too long."

"Well it's the best I can do," Remus snapped. "There's only one practical before that, and it's going to be hard to cause a disruption with a cure for pimples. I doubt even _Pete_ could claim it was an accident if he made _that_ explode. Besides," he continued, when Sirius opened his mouth to object. "The part-bronze cauldron won't arrive until after then, anyway, so we might as well steal the ingredients properly."

"Fine," Sirius said shortly. He turned to James. "Should I use the cloak or not?"

James raised an eyebrow. "Who said _you'd _be doing it?" he asked. "I think that's a terrible idea."

"Seconded," Remus said. "You're already under suspicion enough from McGonagall, what with the body switching. If they work out what ingredients we want, then she'll definitely be able to tell what we were trying to do."

"Exactly," agreed James. "Which is why I should do it."

"We'll all be under the same amount of suspicion," Sirius argued. "She knows we're all involved."

"No she doesn't," James argued, at the same time Remus said "That's the point."

"What?" Sirius and James asked simultaneously.

"That's the reason you can't do it, Sirius," Remus explained. His voice still lacked the usual warmth, but as the time passed, he seemed to be struggling to remember that he was supposed to be mad at his friend. "The person who gets caught stealing the ingredients will probably be expelled, no matter which one of us it is. You guys are already doing enough for me. I'm not having you getting kicked out of Hogwarts as well. I'll go."

"What? No, Moony," James protested. "This was our idea. We'll do it."

"You're doing this to help me, right?" Remus demanded.

The pair looked at each other furtively. "Well, yes," Sirius admitted.

Remus nodded, as though that settled it. "Then I'll do it."

James sighed. There was no arguing with him when he was like this. "Fine," he said. "But take the cloak, just for when you're in there. If Slughorn notices you're gone, we'll arrange a signal. You can hide for the rest of the period and Sirius and I can pretend you ran out of the classroom because you got hit by the potion."

Sirius looked like he was going to argue, but Remus stood up and said with an air of finality, "So that's sorted then." He swung his bag over his shoulder and picked up the book he was reading. "I have to return this to the library," he said. "I'll see you in class."

"Wait!" Sirius said, quickly taking a final gulp of pumpkin juice. "I'll come with you."

Remus looked surprised, but he didn't protest. He waited for Sirius to untangle himself from the table and then led the way out of the hall.

They walked in silence for about a minute before Sirius broke it with a small cough. "Look, Remus," he said awkwardly. "About yesterday…."

"Forget it," Remus said coolly. "It was a heated discussion. Emotions were high. It's best if we just pretend it never happened."

"No," Sirius said, "it isn't. I know you, Remus; you've been acting cold to me ever since. Even now you're not being yourself. I'm sorry I reacted so… rashly. I just wasn't… prepared to see that."

"Is it because the person I was kissing was a guy?" Remus asked bluntly. They reached the library – it was dead silent in the before-class calm, and Remus had to lower his voice. "Is that why you acted like you did?"

"No!" Sirius said quickly.

Remus looked at him sceptically. "Really?" he asked. "So you would have reacted like that if you'd walked in on me kissing a girl?"

"Maybe," Sirius said stubbornly. Remus' sceptical expression didn't change. "I might have!" he exclaimed defensively, when Remus' silence made it clear that he didn't believe the dog-like boy. "I suppose we'll never know."

"It's fine if that was the reason," Remus said quietly, placing the book on the return pile. "I'd rather you told me, if it _is_ that you have a problem with me liking another guy. I know it must be weird for you, and I'm really grateful you're still talking to me and all-"

Sirius cut him off, probably a little too loudly considering they were in a silent library. "Don't say that, Remus," he said, and Remus was somewhat taken aback by the passion in his voice. "Don't _ever_ say that."

"Don't say what?" Remus said, his surprise at Sirius' attitude evident in his voice.

"That you're… _grateful_." Sirius spat out the last word like it was poison. "Don't be grateful for people not being dicks about things they shouldn't be dicks about."

Remus had to hide a grin at his friend's choice of phrase. "It's not that," he said to Sirius. "I know a lot of people wouldn't have been so accepting of me liking someone of my own gender." He couldn't quite say "that I'm gay" yet, partly because he wasn't sure that was the case, and partly because he didn't like saying the word. It seemed weird, coming from his lips. "And I know for a fact that even less people would be accepting of my furry little problem. I don't take that for granted-"

Sirius cut him off again. "You _should_," he exclaimed. "You _should _take it for granted." Remus frowned and Sirius gave the werewolf a wry smile. "I don't like it when you act like you're a second class citizen because of what you are, Remus," he said. "Whether it's because of your condition or because you've fallen in love with another guy. You shouldn't have to 'accept' that people won't like those things. You should be able to walk down the corridor and hold Bradley's hand, and you shouldn't have to hide what you are."

"Sirius-" Remus said, speechless. He had nothing to say in answer to Sirius' announcement. What _was_ there to say to that? He just settled for a gruff "Thanks."

"There you go again," Sirius said to Remus with a smile. "Thanking me for something you shouldn't have to be thankful for."

They were at their classroom now, but Remus had timed it far too early; not even the teacher was there yet. They took their seats anyway, and Sirius checked his watch: ten minutes until class. There was a short silence, before Remus broke it with a question.

"So why _did_ you react like that?" he asked. "If it wasn't because you were… disgusted, or whatever."

"Not disgusted," Sirius said quickly. "A little uncomfortable, maybe. But that's not really the reason."

"Brad reckoned that it was because you don't like him much."

"He said that?"

"To be honest, you have sort of been giving off that vibe."

"Huh," Sirius said.

"So do you?"

"Do I dislike Bradley?" Sirius asked, although he already knew that was the question.

"Yeah."

"I dunno," Sirius shrugged. He thought about it for a moment, and then he added, "I guess I do. He just… annoys me. But I'm not sure why."

"Hm," Remus said thoughtfully. "It's just a theory, but do you think it's possible that you're… you know, a little jealous?"

"What, _jealous_?" Sirius asked, trying to ignore the way his heart was beating a little faster in his chest. Was he jealous? What would he be jealous of? More importantly, was it just him, or did his voice sound a few octaves too high? "Why would I be jealous?"

"Well, think about it," Remus said. "It's always just been us four Marauders, and no one else. I mean, Pete hasn't had a girlfriend. James is too obsessed with Lily to contemplate going out with anyone else, and she'll never say yes to him. Even when you've had girlfriends, you've ignored them most of the time except for when you've wanted a snog – or a shag – in the broom closet. I know I've been spending a lot of time with Brad lately. Do you think you might be finding the sudden change a little disconcerting and taking it out on him, because he's the person you associate with causing the change?"

"Um, can you repeat that?" Sirius asked jokingly.

Remus laughed. "It's just a theory, anyway," he said lightly, pulling his books out of his bag as a group of students wandered into the charms classroom.

"It could be that, I guess," Sirius admitted in a low, uncertain voice. "Maybe." He pulled his stuff out of his bag and placed it on the desk in front of him. "I'm sorry, anyway, if I'm being a wanker about Brad," he said finally. "You go be happy with him, and don't worry about me. I'll get over it."

Remus smiled. "Everything'll sort itself out," he said.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed.

At that moment, they were forced to drop the conversation because Peter and James slid into the desks either side of them, but Sirius didn't mind. He felt like everything _had_ been sorted out.

* * *

><p>"Wow, that's really awesome!" Brad exclaimed, bending so low over the grubby parchment that his nose was almost touching it. "This is honestly amazing!"<p>

Remus couldn't resist a small, proud smile. "It took us ages," he said. "You should have _felt _the migraines that piece of paper gave me."

Brad laughed. "I can see why," he said. "The detail in this is incredible. And I know you _said _that you can see people's movements on it, but seeing it for yourself is just… wow."

Remus grinned. "Wait until you see the hidden layers of enchantments," he said, pulling out his wand. Carefully, he tapped where the statue of the witch on the third floor corridor should be, and a little speech figure of himself appeared, tapping the statue with his wand. Above him was a speech bubble saying 'Dissendium'.

"What…?" Brad asked.

"Secret passage to Hogsmeade," Remus said proudly. "Takes you straight into the Honeydukes cellar."

"No!" whispered Brad incredulously. Remus grinned widely.

"Yep," he said. "It's brilliant. I love chocolate; I always end up eating mine before the next Hogsmeade weekend."

"I'll keep that in mind when I've done something wrong and need your forgiveness," Brad said. He kissed Remus lightly on the lips before turning back to the map. "But all of this is amazing!"

"You've said," Remus said dryly. "Many times, in fact. Using various synonyms."

"Well it is," Brad defended himself. "Can we…" He trailed off.

"Can we…?" Remus prompted.

"Can I follow people around with the map?" Brad said in a rush.

Remus raised his eyebrows. "Should I be worried that my boyfriend appears to have stalking tendencies?" he teased.

Brad swatted at him with one hand. "Not like that," he said. "I mean, I know you've said what it does, and I do believe you, really, but can I see it? Like, see the people walking in Hogwarts and then see them on the map?"

"You want to walk around with your nose to a large piece of parchment?" Remus asked sceptically.

"They might think it was an essay?" Brad suggested hopefully.

"In map form?"

"Maybe not."

Remus but his lip, thinking. Then an idea struck him. He folded up the map and slipped it into his pocket. "Come with me," he said to Brad, taking his hand. "I know just the place."

* * *

><p>"Will you ever stop surprising me?" Brad demanded.<p>

Remus laughed. "Eventually I'll probably run out of things to show you," he said. "But for now, I'll enjoy revelling in your amazement."

They were hidden in a secret passageway that the Marauders had discovered in their fourth year; a very useful one for spying, because you could see out of it, but no one could see it.

"I can see everyone walking past," Brad said slowly, "but none of them can see me."

"That's right," Remus replied. "So you can stalk people to your heart's content. So long as they're walking past the passageway, that is."

"Look, here comes Professor McGonagall!" Brad exclaimed. A hush fell over them as they waited for her to walk past; Brad tense with anticipation and Remus relaxed in his amusement. Footsteps echoed out in the corridor and, sure enough, Professor McGonagall walked past a few second later. Brad held his breath until she was out of sight, and then released it with a whooshing noise.

"Amazing!" he whispered. "Absolutely incredible." He glanced at the paper and then back up at Remus again. "Have I mentioned that you're a genius?"

"A couple of times," Remus said modestly. "And you don't have to whisper, you know. They can't hear _or _see us."

"Really?" Brad asked, sounding curious. "Can I test that?"

"Of course," Remus grinned. He'd come to expect that question.

"This isn't a wind up, is it?" Brad asked suspiciously, as he checked the map for the next passer-by. "You're not going to tell me that they can't hear me just so I shout out something stupid and make myself look like an idiot, are you?"

"Would I do that?" Remus asked innocently.

"I dunno," Brad grinned. "After some of those pranks you've told me about…." He left the latter part of his sentence unsaid.

"That was almost totally Sirius and James!" Remus said, mock-defensively. "They corrupted my innocence. By myself, I'm a perfect prefect who never puts a foot wrong."

Brad burst out laughing at that and Remus fought to suppress a smile. "That would have almost been convincing," Brad told him, "if you hadn't been fluttering your eyelashes ridiculously at me while you were saying it."

"What, like this?" Remus asked, doing his 'fake-innoncence' expression again.

Brad snickered. "Yes, like that," he said. "Ooh, shush, someone's coming."

It was a student – Amanda Figg - whose name Remus didn't recognise. "Why am I shushing?" he asked. "I thought the point was to be noisy."

"Shh, just wait," Brad said. The pair fell silent.

It didn't take long before she walked past the entranceway, coming into their view. Suddenly, and loudly, Brad called out "Amanda Figg!" with such volume it made Remus jump. Amanda continued walking without so much as a hesitation.

"Wow, you were right!" Brad exclaimed.

"Did you not trust my word?" Remus asked with a smile.

"It's cooler seeing it in action," Brad said. There was a short silence as he examined the map once more, before he looked up shyly through lowered lashes. In that second, the temperature of the room seemed to go up about ten degrees. "So," Brad said carefully. "A hidden, sound-proof room, huh?"

"Yeah." Remus' mouth was suddenly dry. "It's quite…." He didn't know what word he should use to finish that sentence.

"Convenient?" Brad asked.

"I was going to say that it was quite a risk in a castle that was designed to be filled with hormonal teenagers," Remus said, realising that his quickly-said sentence was bordering on babbling. "But your descriptor works fine as well."

Brad smiled and folded up the map. "I wonder what this room was built for," he asked.

Remus licked his lips. "I don't know," he said. "Although it's not hard to imagine what most people would use it for."

Brad gently took Remus' hand, and his thumb began to trace small circles on the back of it. The action was gentle, but for some reason it made Remus' stomach lurch as though he'd just jumped off a sixteen-foot-high broom into the lake.

"Remus?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you _want_ to use this room like most people would?"

Remus' mouth felt dry, and he was certain that Brad would be able to feel the slight trembling of his limbs as he answered, but his voice was strong and sure.

"Yes."

* * *

><p>It was gentle. It wasn't <em>just <em>gentle, of course – it was so many things as well as that. It was sensual and lovely and sensational and delicate and loving and _oh Merlin _it was arousing. But under all those things was a current of tenderness that made Remus wonder why he'd been so nervous. They started just by kissing, like they'd been doing for a while now. But somehow the knowledge that it was going to go _so much further_ made the kissing… different. Not better or worse, just different.

It wasn't long before Remus felt himself grow hard and a matching erection pressed back against his thigh. Slowly, so slowly, Brad's hands wandered down his body, pausing so often and for so long that the path could have almost been accidental if it wasn't heading to such an obvious area. But eventually they reached Remus' trousers and pressed themselves against the bulge in the front of them.

Remus experienced a moment of panic as Brad's nimble fingers popped open his top button. He hadn't thought this through, he realised; Brad was going to undress him and see the scars and guess what he was. But he couldn't back out now, could he? What was he going to do?

Brad must have sensed something was wrong; perhaps in his terror, Remus had tensed up too much. But what had given Remus away didn't matter; Brad stopped what he was doing and pulled back.

"Remus?" he asked carefully. "You alright?" Remus' breathing was heavy, and it wasn't all due to arousal. Brad hesitated, then added, "You seem a little… uncomfortable. We don't have to do this if you don't want to. I don't want you to be pressured into anything."

"I'm not… I'm not pressured," Remus stuttered out.

"We can stop, if you want."

"No, I don't want to stop," Remus said nervously. "Really, I don't. It's just… this is going to sound really weird."

Brad smiled. "Well, you'd better say it regardless. Although as a precursor to sex, I have to say that a sentence like that, when said at the beginnings of sex, really puts me on my guard."

Despite the tension, Remus couldn't help laughing. "Not weird like that," he said. "Shame on you for even thinking it."

Brad grinned. "Yes, shame on me. So what were you going to say?"

"Can I… can I keep my clothes on?"

To his credit, Brad managed to hide his surprise rather well. "Alright," he said. "Whatever makes you feel comfortable is fine by me."

Remus breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you," he said genuinely as he moved back towards his boyfriend.

"Don't mention it," Brad gasped out as Remus' lips attached themselves to his neck. "Honestly, Remus, you have to stop expecting me to jump down your throat for- oh." Brad's words cut off by a moan as Remus' hand found the still-firm erection that was tenting his trousers. "It's fine," he moaned instead, obviously deciding the previous sentence was too long to finish. "Absolutely fine."

Remus' fingers began undoing the button on Brad's trousers, a lot more clumsily than Brad's fingers had been. Eventually, however, he got it undone and he wasted no time getting the obstacle that was the zipper out of the way.

"Oh God," Brad breathed as Remus' hands sunk unto his pants. "Oh God oh God ohgodohgodohgod."

"You know," Remus said as his hand began moving up and down on his boyfriend's cock, his breathing heavy. "Your muggle education really shows through at times like these. I believe most wizards say "Oh Merlin" during moments of intense emotion."

"Remus, your pillow talk is terrible," Brad gasped out. "Oh, yes, fuck that feels good."

"I know the reason for that," Remus said, pulling Brad's pants further down his thighs. "There're no pillows."

Brad's laughed was choked, and interrupted halfway through by a moan of pleasure. "Oh God, Remus, 'm not gonna last. Too good."

Remus leaned forwards so his clothed erection was pressing against Brad's thigh. His breath blew at strands of Brad's hair as he breathed in his ear, "Come, then."

"Oh God," Brad groaned again as Remus' hand began jerking him faster. "No problems there. Fuck yes."

Remus' reached his other hand down and cupped Brad's heavy balls. At the sensation, Brad let out a cry and his hips shot forwards as he came in Remus' hand. "God, Remus," he groaned, and his arms wrapped comfortably around Remus as his head fell into the crook of the werewolf's neck.

It was comfortable for the first ten seconds, but after that Remus began hoping that Brad would move as some point, as he was acutely aware that his hands were covered in Brad's fluids and he was still achingly hard. "Um, Brad…?" he said eventually, shifting uncomfortably in the other boy's embrace.

"Sorry," Brad said, removing his arms from around Remus and lifting his head. "But God that was good."

"I think you said that," Remus commented dryly, wiping his wet hand on his jeans. Brad laughed.

"Do you want some help with that," Brad said, gesturing awkwardly to Remus' erection.

"Um…," Remus said.

"We don't have to take your clothes off," Brad said quickly. "Hopefully."

"Really?" Remus asked.

"Yeah," Brad said, moving forwards. "See, I'll show you."

He tenderly placed his lips against Remus' and gently moved the werewolf back so that his back was against the wall. His hand moved back down to Remus' crotch, where he rubbed it through the fabric. It wasn't quite as rushed or rough as they'd been earlier, but the sensuality of the action remained undiminished and Remus moaned in pleasure. "That feels good," he said breathlessly when Brad pulled away for air.

"That's good," Brad said, and Remus heard the laughter in his voice.

It wasn't long before Remus was moving his hips back against Brad, and the blonde removed his hand to press his body up against the werewolf. Remus came while rubbing his clothed erection against Brad's thigh.

There was a moment of awkwardness as Brad pulled away, and Remus' heart sunk as he realised he'd have to walk back to the common room with drying come in his pants. But then Brad said, "Well that was fun," in such a chirpy voice that Remus had to laugh, and then Brad was laughing too and none of it mattered any more.

"That felt amazing," Remus breathed, redoing up the button that Brad had undone earlier.

"Was that the first time you'd done anything like that?" Brad asked, curiously.

"Yeah," Remus said, surprised at the question. "Of course. Who else would I have done anything with?" There was a short silence as it began to dawn on Remus that something wasn't quite right. "Was that not the first time you'd… you know?"

There was a moment's silence, which really gave Remus all the answers that he needed, before Bradley said a very small voice…

"Well, not exactly."


	10. Complexities and Confessions

**Chameleon Changes Chapter 10**

_Complexities and Confessions_

"What do you mean, not exactly?" Remus asked. His heart was beating too fast, his breathing too quick. What could Brad have done? Who could Brad have done anything with? And… "Why didn't you say this before?" he asked, his voice just a little higher than usual.

He realised their bodies were still pressed rather close together and he pulled away. A hurt expression briefly crossed Brad's face, but was quickly masked. "I was ashamed," Brad said quietly. "I didn't want to tell you."

"Well maybe you should have," Remus snapped.

Brad swallowed. "I'm sorry," he said. "But I'm telling you now."

"It's a bit bloody late, don't you think?" Remus said bitterly. His feeling of post-orgasmic bliss had completely disappeared now, to be replaced by a keen sense of betrayal.

"I'm sorry," Brad said again. "Will you at least let me explain?"

"Not here," Remus said. "And not now." The walls were pressing in on him and he wanted nothing more than to take a shower. The dampness of his pants was beginning to feel distinctly uncomfortable.

"Then when?" asked Brad.

"This afternoon," Remus said decidedly. "Meet me at three, under the Quidditch stands." That gave him a few hours.

Brad nodded. He seemed relieved for the opportunity. "I'm sorry," he said for the third time.

"So I've heard." Remus's voice was hard.

* * *

><p>"Stop laughing!" James exclaimed. Peter and Sirius, who was rolling around on the floor by this point, both ignored him. "It's not funny!"<p>

"You look… like a bush!" Sirius panted out, before dissolving into giggles once more.

James shook his head and, sure enough, a couple of loose leaves floated to the floor. "I _know_," he said impatiently. "I've got bloody _branches_ growing out of my head, haven't I?"

"Lily never fails to amaze me," Peter said, finally getting his laughter under control. "Where do you think she gets all these spells from?"

James glowered at him. "The library, probably," he said bad-temperedly. "That's not the point! How do I reverse the spell? This bush is really heavy. And it itches!" Sirius, who'd just paused for breath, burst out laughing once more. James shot him an annoyed look. "Stop laughing, Padfoot!"

"I can't!" Sirius wheezed.

James turned to Peter, as Sirius had made it clear that he'd be of absolutely no use. "How do I fix this?" he demanded.

"Have you tried _finite incantatem_?" Peter suggested in a slightly helpless tone.

"Yes," James said miserably. "It didn't work."

Peter's mouth twitched, but his sombre expression held. "Hospital wing?" he asked.

"I'll take myself," James said miserably.

"I'll come," Peter chirped.

"So will I," Sirius said from where he was lying, panting, on the floor.

"No you won't," James snapped. "You can go back to the dormitory. I'm not taking you along just so that you can laugh at me."

"Fine," Sirius pouted. "I didn't want to go anyway." His pout failed as he took one look at James at cracked up again.

Indignant, James-the-bush stalked off with Peter trailing behind him.

* * *

><p>The hot water was almost soothing as it cascaded down his body and Remus closed his eyes as he let it stream over his face. He wished he'd never have to leave the shower; he could just stand her under the warm water forever and never see another person again. Especially not Brad. He could grow gills and fins, and shrink himself to the size where he could swim away down the drain.<p>

But reality wasn't so pleasant. So instead of becoming an aquatic creature, he grabbed a cloth and started to wash himself.

How could Brad do this? Remus wondered to himself as he ran the rough cloth over his skin. It wasn't even the fact that Brad had had a boyfriend before; Remus had suspected as much. It would be unusual to be taken by surprise by that fact, seeing as the thing that had brought Brad to his attention had been Pete saying that Brad had been seen shagging another boy behind the greenhouses.

The problem was that Brad hadn't told him. Or, at least, he hadn't told him until now. Right after they'd done… whatever they'd done. Remus wasn't sure what to call it; it hadn't been sex exactly, but it had certainly been sexual in nature. Regardless of its name, though, it had meant something, and now Remus felt used.

That was really the main reason why Remus was willing to let Brad explain it to him; curiosity compelled him. Although, deep down, a part of Remus was hoping for an innocent explanation, or a misunderstanding, but he wasn't expecting one.

Remus realised that while he'd been deeply pondering the intricacies of his relationship and emotional state, his thoughts hadn't done his shower much good. Remus had spent the last few minutes washing the same part of his arm. With chagrin, he realised that the scrubbing had made the surface skin an angry red.

Remus looked at his arm more closely and faltered. Yes, it was red from the scrubbing and the heat of the shower. But also easily visible was the recent, inflamed scar that he'd got on the last full moon. Underneath the recent cut were several layers of older, more healed, but no-less-violent marks. Remus glanced down at the rest of his body, and noticed once more the evidence of his life on his marred skin.

It was all laid out there; as easy to read as writing on parchment. Those scars said what he was, and Remus was vividly reminded of what _he_ was hiding from Brad – and his secret was much worse than a simple sexual encounter with an ex-boyfriend.

Disgusted by the sight of his body, Remus turned off the shower and grabbed his towel, wrapping it around his waist. In his hurry to get under the steamy water, he'd forgotten his clothes; it didn't matter. He grabbed his dirty clothes and sauntered out into the dormitory.

To his surprise, Sirius was walking through the door just as Remus exited the bathroom. "Oh, Moony, you're here," Sirius said. For some reason, he seemed unable to wipe a broad grin off his face.

"Yeah, but only for a moment," Remus said. "I've got something to do soon."

"Why'd you have a shower in the middle of the day?" Sirius asked as Remus ducked behind the curtain.

"Because I felt like it," Remus called back.

"Lily's hexed James again," Sirius told him, his voice muffled because of the fabric. "He's in the hospital wing."

"I thought he was making real progress this time," Remus said. "How long had it been since she last cursed him?"

"Dunno," Sirius said, and Remus could hear the grin in his voice. "A while."

"Leopards never change their spots," Remus said, pulling a shirt over his head. Before he emerged from behind the curtain, he made sure to kick his soiled pants under his bed. It wouldn't do for Sirius to see them and guess what he'd been doing with Brad. That encounter would be awkward at the best of times, and Remus still hadn't forgotten their last argument. "Where's Pete then?"

"Gone with him," Sirius shrugged. "Where are you off to in such a hurry, anyway?"

Remus sat on the bed to pull his socks on. "I'm not hurrying." He looked at his watch; he still had about half an hour. "I'm just… getting ready. I arranged to meet up with Brad."

Sirius's mouth hardened almost unperceptively. Remus saw it, but he thought that maybe he'd have missed it if he hadn't been expecting it. "I thought you were just with him?" Sirius asked.

"No," Remus lied. "I was studying."

"Study's dull," Sirius said, flopping beside Remus and kicking his shoe off.

Remus yelped as the weight bounced the bed and unbalanced him, almost making him fall over sideways as he wrestled his sock on. "Sirius," Remus said. "Be careful."

"What was that?" Sirius asked innocently as he bounced the bed some more. Remus was prepared this time and managed to stay well-positioned on the mattress.

"I said no bouncing," Remus said, standing up so he couldn't be toppled over, but even as the words left his mouth he couldn't hold back a smile. "Get off my bed."

"Make me," Sirius grinned infuriatingly, clutching at the sheets.

Sighing, Remus brushed the hair from his eyes. "It's hard to tell that you're seventeen, Padfoot," he said. "You're so immature." He put his hands on his hips and surveyed his friend with a smile.

Sirius grinned insolently up at him, but his grin turned to a yelp of surprise as, without warning, Remus grabbed at his foot and attempted to pull him off the bed with a mighty tug. He partially succeeded. Flailing, Sirius wriggled out of his grasp and launched himself back towards the bed, desperately grasping the edge of the bed as though his life was in peril.

"You'll never make me budge!" Sirius cried over his shoulder as Remus pulled at his foot. The unfortunate werewolf came away with nothing but a three-day-old sock to show for his efforts.

Remus crawled onto the bed beside Sirius and tried to loosen his grasp on the mattress, laughing as he did so. He couldn't remember the last time they'd enjoyed a playful scuffle like this; when they'd been younger, there'd barely been a week where Sirius hadn't been found darting around the dormitory, in hot pursuit by whoever he'd just annoyed. Remus hadn't thought that he'd missed those moments but, as he prodded Sirius in the side and watched the other boy convulse with laughter, he realised that he actually did.

Sirius took advantage of his distraction – and the fact that he was in an awkward position – and made the decision that attack was better than defence. He dived at Remus and, before the werewolf could blink, he was pinned under Sirius's greater weight as the almost-animagus sat on him while holding down his wrists.

Remus squirmed briefly before realising he was well and truly stuck. "Get off, you great lump," he grumbled, trying in vain to free his wrists.

"Nope," Sirius chirped.

Resignedly, Remus stopped fighting and glared playfully up at his friend. "I can lie here all day," he challenged Sirius.

"And I can sit on you all week," Sirius countered. "How ya gonna get out of this one?"

Remus took the challenge and bucked his body; Sirius grunted as he was almost dislodged, but held on. He leaned closer so more of his weight was bearing down upon the werewolf. "You'll have to try harder than that, Moony," he breathed.

Something was wrong, Remus realised. Sirius's voice was too quiet, and too different. Suddenly Sirius's grip went slack, and Remus really should be taking the opportunity to escape. But he wasn't. He was paralysed.

Slowly, hesitantly, Sirius leaned closer. And closer. And closer. Their faces were almost touching. Remus could throw him off now; both their bodies had grown limp. But there was something about the intimacy of the moment, something about the way he could feel Sirius's breath on his eyelashes that forbade such a movement.

And then Sirius's lips were on his. It was barely a kiss at all; just a small amount of gentle pressure and then it was gone. But it was enough to break the spell.

"What the hell?" Remus yelled, launching himself up off the bed – and Sirius off of him. "What the fuck was that, Sirius?"

"A… a kiss," Sirius stuttered. He seemed shocked, although whether it was by Remus's reaction or the kiss itself Remus couldn't be sure.

"You're straight! And I have a boyfriend, if you remember!"

"Yeah, it's hard to forget with the way you go on about him all the time," Sirius snapped, ignoring the first statement. "It's always 'Brad this' and 'Brad that'. You make it impossible to forget you're taken."

"Perhaps you should have paid more attention to that, then," Remus yelled. "Before you go _kissing _me!"

"I didn't _mean _to!" Sirius shouted back. "It just _happened_."

Remus didn't have a response to that. He just whirled around angrily and stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

* * *

><p>By the time he reached the Quidditch stands at the appointed time, he'd managed to walk the surprise, anger and confusion off. He hadn't, however, managed to forget it, and it was still fresh on his mind as he approached Brad, who was already sitting in the cool shade of the seating. "Hey," he said, fighting to be casual. It was difficult; all he could think about was the press of Sirius's chapped lips on his own.<p>

"I thought you might not come," Brad said.

"I said I would," Remus said, fighting to keep his mind on what was happening there and then.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"Brad," Remus interrupted. "It's okay. I wanted to say that I'm sorry about how I reacted before. I was just… surprised. I should have taken it better."

"No," Brad sighed. "You had every right. I should have… I should have told you."

"I think I sort of knew," Remus admitted. "My friend said that you'd been caught shagging someone, and I deliberately didn't think about or bring it up."

Brad looked confused. "Who said that?" he asked.

"Pete did," Remus said.

"I've never shagged anyone at Hogwarts," Brad said. "I swear."

"He said… a seventh year… behind the greenhouses…"

"Remus, I've never slept with another student," Brad said. "I did kiss McCrawly after Herbology one day because he asked me to kiss him as an experiment, and someone saw, but I swear that's it."

It seemed reasonable; McCrawly was a seventh year in Slytherin. "Then who'd you sleep with?" Remus asked.

"I didn't really… sleep with him," Brad said hesitantly. "Not in that sense. It was over the summer holidays, and I'd just come out to my friend, Cathryn, during the last term. I didn't know anyone else who was gay and I'd never read about it or anything – I mean, I have now, but it was really a big thing when I first came out. Anyway, she was muggle born, and she had a muggle friend who was a lesbian and was going to this meeting thing for other gay people. I don't really know much about it… I just tagged along because they said I should. And I met this boy."

Remus fought down the waves of jealousy that swept over him. The only consolation what that Brad didn't look very thrilled about having met this boy; he was frowning and looking at the ground.

"He seemed quite nice," Brad continued. "I think he must have been a few years older than me. He had a muggle car, anyway, although I don't know how old you need to be to drive those things. We got talking and afterwards he asked if I wanted to go with him for a drink. I told him I wasn't old enough but he said it wasn't a problem. So we drove to his flat – he said his flatmates were out – and we started drinking."

Remus was beginning to feel apprehensive about whether this story was going to have a happy ending.

"I can't remember how much we had. It was the first time I'd drunken anything alcoholic – magic or muggle – but I think I must have had a lot because my memories are a bit fuzzy. I do remember him getting very close, and I liked that bit. But then we started kissing, and he wanted to go… further… and I wasn't sure about that. I said so, but he said that it was alright and it would feel good."

"Merlin," Remus breathed, seeing where this was going now. "He didn't…?"

"We didn't actually have sex," Brad said quickly. "I think I might have… you know, with my mouth and stuff… but I didn't really want to, and I didn't like it."

Remus reached out and grasped his hand. "You should have told me," he said. "Brad, that's _rape_."

"It wasn't really," Brad said. "I didn't really want to, but he didn't exactly force me. He was just… a bit rough. And a bit forceful."

"Just because he didn't have to hold you down to do it doesn't mean it was okay," Remus said darkly.

Brad shrugged. "It's done now, anyway. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I didn't want you to judge me, and I suppose I didn't really want to admit that it counted. It wasn't very enjoyable… not like it was with you."

Remus felt himself blush slightly at that. "You should have told me," he repeated. "Then I wouldn't have gotten mad like I did." He truly regretted his rash actions now.

"It's fine," Brad said with a small smile. He leant in for a kiss.

Remus obliged, but even as their lips met he couldn't help remembering that not half an hour ago, it had been Sirius's lips on his own.

* * *

><p>He returned to the common room later that afternoon as the sun was beginning to sink over the grounds. The common room was as noisy as always, and Remus's eyes darted to the Marauder's usual corner. Sure enough, Sirius was sitting there with Pete, playing a game of exploding snap. There was no way that Sirius could have heard the noise of the portrait hole shutting but, as it clicked closed behind him, Sirius's eyes rose to meet Remus's.<p>

The werewolf held his gaze for a moment before looking away and heading straight up to the dorms. To his relief, James wasn't there either and it was completely empty. He wished he had homework to do, or something else to take his mind off of Sirius.

He had the distinct feeling that they should probably talk about what had happened, but the issue was that Remus didn't really want to. Not only did he not know what to say about it, but it was an awkward conversation that, knowing Sirius, would not end well.

The kiss had taken Remus totally by surprise, and he wasn't sure what to make of it. Had Sirius just been experimenting? Was he gay, bisexual, or just fooling around? Had it meant anything, or had Remus just _been there_? Maybe, a snide voice in the back of Remus's mind whispered, he'd wanted to get between Remus and Brad. The other boy hadn't made it a secret that he disliked the Ravenclaw.

Remus wanted to reject that thought out of hand. Trifling with his emotions like that would be little short of cruel. Sirius wouldn't do that…would he? Through Remus's mind flashed numerous demonstrations of his and James's irrational hatred towards Snape, but Remus put that aside. That was different, he told himself.

His thoughts were interrupted by the echoing noise of footsteps on the stairs. Without needing to think about it, Remus knew exactly who it would be. Quickly he threw himself into the bathroom and locked the door, before turning the shower onto full. Not for the first time he was glad that technology in the magical world wasn't as adept as it was in the muggle one; before he'd come to Hogwarts, Remus had never heard such a racket coming from outdated plumbing. In his first year, he'd feared the straining pipes would burst if he'd showered too long.

He put his ear to the door and, over the sound of the water, he could just make out the familiar squeak of the door to their dorm open. He couldn't hear the footsteps, but he assumed Sirius had walked in.

"Remus?" Sirius called out. Remus leaned his head against the wood of the door and shut his eyes. He didn't reply.

After a few moments, he heard the hinges creak again and the unmistakable sound of a door shutting. He hoped it meant that Sirius had left.

The bathroom started to steam up as the quickly-heating water hit the cool stone floor. Ignoring the still-running water, Remus turned his back to the door and slid down it, burying his head in his hands.

_Stupid body-swapping_, he thought. _Stupid, stupid body-swapping_.

How had such a simple mistake in the incantation suddenly made his life so complicated?

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I couldn't help noticing I'm almost at 100 reviews, and I just wanted to thank everyone for the amazing support for this story, even though it's 10 chapters in and Remus and Sirius still aren't together (as you guys keep informing me). I also wanted to add that, as I'll probably reach the hundredth review very soon, as a way of celebrating and thanking you guys for getting so far... I want to write a oneshot for everyone who reviews this chapter between now and when I post chapter eleven!**

**This could potentially end really badly for me if I get heaps of reviews (which is a good thing, really!), and I warn you I may take aaaages to write them (as people I've written stories for before can testify). So either leave a note at the end of the review saying what pairing you want and anything you want included in it, or review and then send me a PM. **

**Thanks to everyone who's read this so far, and a special thank you to my beta xNomii. You're awesome and your story is at 4000 words. I swear I'll finish it soon!**


	11. Conspiracies and Close Calls

"Operation Sabotage is go," James whispered in Remus's ear as the Marauders traipsed into the Potions classroom. Remus had to bite back a grin as James rushed past him; while it had taken him a while to come around to the Marauder's rule-breaking ways, he couldn't deny the brilliant rush of excitement that he experienced when carrying out a plan.

Finally, after hours of careful planning, the Marauders were ready to steal the last few potion ingredients from right under Professor Slughorn's nose. Even Sirius had been pulled out of his recent doom-and-gloom mood over the past few days as their ideas solidified and the prank became almost tangible.

Remus glanced at Sirius now; he had yet to speak to the other boy about the kiss they'd shared. It had only been yesterday that he'd finally allowed Sirius to get him on his own, and the almost-animagus must have realised that Remus wasn't ready to talk about it because he didn't bring it up. Instead an awkward silence fell between them, broken only when Peter came bounding into the dorm, announcing gleefully that Severus was in the Hospital Wing with a vole-shaped head.

James and Peter had not been oblivious to Sirius's recent mood; however, they'd been totally clueless about the cause of it. He'd noticed them both looking between him and Sirius upon occasion, though, and he'd wondered whether they suspected it had something to do with him. He dismissed the notion quickly; no good could come from a feeling of paranoia over every sideways look he received from his friends.

They took their seats with a suppressed feeling of excitement coursing between the four of them. Remus sat with James today; it was more believable that Sirius would allow Peter to make such a horrendous mistake than if it were Remus who was working with him. Originally, James would have been Peter's partner but Sirius had announced the change in the plan at the last minute the night before. The sudden variation made no difference to the dynamics in the long run, although once more James had given the pair one of his suspicious looks.

"I still think you should have the cloak on," James muttered to Remus as they began setting up their cauldron.

"Well it's too late now," Remus replied. "And I've told you – it would have looked suspicious trying to smuggle a great lump of fabric around under my shirt. I can't exactly carry my bag into Slughorn's back room, can I?"

"I still don't like it," James muttered.

"Your concern is touching," Remus said dryly. "Now we're going to need a pound of doxy eggs, an ounce of newt eyes, and several crushed billywig wings. Off you go."

James frowned but did as he was bid. He'd once complained about how bossy Remus was in Potions; the next lesson, the werewolf had sat back and let him do all the work, not even correcting him when he made a mistake. They'd ended up with a green lump of something very solid sitting in the bottom of their cauldron. Needless to say, James kept his mouth shut from then on. That way he got to keep his eyebrows _and _got top marks in Potions.

"You should have started adding ingredients to your cauldron by now!" Slughorn announced from the front of the class. Remus quickly started lighting a fire; arguing with James had put them behind.

It was an extremely tense period of Potions. Remus cut up his gurdy roots far too finely and James kept letting the bouncing Burlaff pods jump away from him – both their minds were preoccupied with the anticipation of their plan.

Behind them, Peter and Sirius were doing just as terribly – but that was no surprise. Sirius could make a passable potion without putting a lot of effort in, but he was sitting sulkily in his chair and leaving Pete to do most of the work. Remus felt a flash of concern.

"Don't forget to add the sleepwort," Remus hissed under his breath as he passed Peter on his way to get ingredients. It didn't matter if the rat-like boy forgot every other ingredient, so long as the sleepwort was in the mixture to react with the narwhal pus. "In fact, put in double what the book says."

Peter nodded nervously as he grabbed some more gurdy roots. Remus went to return to his desk, but then turned back. "By the way," he told his friend, "you're cauldron's overflowing. And your potion is definitely not supposed to be green."

Peter swore and hurried back to his desk with Remus close behind him (he was the desk in front). By the time they reached the rows they were sitting in, Slughorn was already at the cauldron. With a wave of his wand, he vanished the contents. "I'm sorry, boys," he told Peter and Sirius. "It looks like this one hasn't worked out. In fact, it was melting of your cauldron." He turned it over and showed them the hole in the bottom. "Pack up your things and begin a two page essay on what exactly you did wrong."

"But sir," Peter squeaked, panicking. "Can't we start again?"

"Sorry," Slughorn said, not looking that sorry at all. "There isn't enough time left. Besides, you don't have a functioning cauldron." And with that he swept back to the front of the classroom, his robes billowing after him.

The four Marauders exchanged worried looks; how could their plans have gone awry so early into the lesson?

* * *

><p>"What are we going to do now?" James asked Remus as the werewolf frantically added more gurdy roots, trying to get the colour to even out.<p>

"It's fine," Remus said. "We'll just have to use _our_ potion to create the explosion."

"If we do that, Slughorn will notice you slipping into his storeroom," James muttered.

"Sirius will have to do it then," Remus said reluctantly. He hadn't wanted James or Sirius to risk their necks for him any more than they already were, but it didn't look like they had much choice now. "And he'll have to do it right," he added. Their potion had been going to be the backup one – the one they'd explode if they needed a second distraction. Now, there was no safety net. If Sirius got caught, then there'd be no getting him out of it.

"I'll let him know," James said. "You get the Narwhal pus."

Remus nodded, hastening to the store-cupboard once more. He looked around furtively as an idea struck him; no one else was around…

Whipping out his wand, he non-verbally cast an enchantment that removed the "Narwhal Pus" and "Essence of Lavender" labels from their bottles and swapped them. He stifled a grin as he returned to his seat; now it would look less suspicious than if he and James had just failed to read the bottle. Slughorn would assume the fault lay with whoever had labelled the bottle and divert eyes from what the Marauders were doing.

"Right," Remus muttered to James, handing him the bottle. "Pour that in and stand back when it starts to bubble."

He ducked out of the line of fire and tapped Sirius on the shoulder. "Here's the list," he said, stuffing it into Sirius's hand. Sirius nodded and slipped into his pocket. Without a word, he turned and headed to the back of the classroom, as though he was going to fetch more ingredients.

Then everything happened at once. Their potion began to bubble and spit liquid everywhere. James had moved out of the way of the flying droplets just in time, but Trevor Crawly, who was working in front of them, got a great big blob on the back of his neck and immediately let out a cry of pain as he began turning purple.

Meanwhile, the range of the cauldron was getting larger and larger, and James pressed himself back against the wall next to Remus. "Professor," he called out, not taking his eyes off the explosive cauldron, "I think we've done something wrong."

Out of the corner of his eye, Remus saw Sirius slip through the door into the storeroom.

Slughorn hurried over, although he kept well away from the flying droplets of potion. "You two had better get up to the Hospital Wing," he said to Crawly and Thicknese, who'd also been hit by the potion at this point. "What did you boys _add?_" he asked, pulling out his wand.

"Exactly what it said in the book, Professor," Remus said innocently.

The next five minutes were dedicated to the catastrophe that was their potion. But, as Slughorn began to get everything under control, Remus starting worrying.

Sirius still hadn't returned.

James noticed as well, because he muttered to Remus under his breath, "Where _is _he?"

"Alright, you boys had best pack up your things as well," Slughorn sighed as he vanished the last of their potion.

James and Remus exchanged looks. How was Sirius supposed to get out of the storeroom now? "I told you that we should have brought the cloak," the other boy muttered to Remus.

"Don't go on about it," the werewolf sighed. "Even if we had brought it, I'd have it, not Sirius."

"How are we going to get him out of there?"

"I don't know."

At that point, Brad sidled up to him. "Sirius stuck in the back room?" he asked under his breath.

Remus's eyes widened. "How did you…?" he asked, amazed.

Brad waved off his questions. "I was watching you," he said. "What did you put in your potion to make it react like that?"

"The Essence of Lavender bottle on our bench," Remus said. "It's actually narwhal pus."

"You owe me one," he said and, before Remus could ask what he was doing, he strode over to the bench and picked up the bottle.

"Moony, what's your boyfriend doing?" James asked, confused.

"No idea," Remus said, "but I think we should be grateful he's doing it."

The pair watched with wide eyes as Brad poured a large measure into cauldron. As it began bubbling, Brad pulled his partner back a step. "Erm, Professor," he called out. "Our potion-"

He was cut off as, exactly like James and Remus's potion, the liquid began to spit drops everywhere. Brad ducked out of the way; his friend was not so lucky. He got a splattered full in the face.

And, with no small amount of relief, in the extra drama the second explosion was causing, Remus watched as Sirius slipped back through the door.

"I think the bottle's been labelled wrong, Professor." Remus could see Brad earnestly harassing Slughorn as the Potions Master attempted to right the wrong the Narhwal pus had caused. "It doesn't smell right? See."

* * *

><p>Weaving through crowds of people heading to the Great Hall for lunch, he caught up to Brad and fell into step beside him. As he gently grasped the other boy's hand, Brad smiled at him.<p>

"You were brilliant," Remus murmured, just loud enough for the Ravenclaw to hear. Brad flushed with pleasure.

"You looked like you could do with a hand," he replied modestly.

"C'mere," said Remus, pulling him to the side where they wouldn't be stopping in the middle of a corridor. Leading him to an empty classroom, he searched it for a teacher before pulling Brad inside out of sight, leaning up and lightly kissing him on the lips. "Thank you," he said. "We would have been in so much trouble if it weren't for you."

"No problem," Brad said, a little breathlessly.

Without another word passing between them, Brad grasped Remus's hand once more and the pair made their way back out into the corridor. "So what were you stealing?" Brad asked as they rejoined the throngs of people flocking for lunch.

"Ingredients," Remus said with a cheeky grin.

Brad rolled his eyes. "I guessed that," he said, _"Somehow_. What were you stealing them for?"

Remus grinned again, inwardly wondering how far he could push this. "A potion," he said ambiguously.

Brad let out a laugh. "My man of mystery," he said, and thankfully dropped the subject.

"How's your friend?" Remus asked, a little guiltily. "He didn't look so good when Slughorn lead him away."

"He'll be fine," Brad said, but he bit his lip.

"Madam Pomfrey can fix anything," said Remus reassuringly. "Believe me."

* * *

><p>They reconvened in the common that afternoon during their free period. "Did you get all of them?" James asked Sirius, almost before the other boy finished clambering into the common room.<p>

He grinned and threw himself on the couch opposite, pulling several vials from his cloak and placing them on the table.

"Not here, Sirius," Remus hissed, quickly sweeping the off the table and into his bag. "What if someone sees?"

Sirius casually lounged back on his chair. "What does it matter?" he asked carelessly. "We got away with it, didn't we?"

"Just barely," James said, frowning. "If it hadn't been for Bradley, you would have been caught for sure."

"But we got away with it," Sirius said.

"That doesn't mean we still won't be caught," Remus cautioned him. "What we're doing is highly illegal. If we're found out-"

"-We might be expelled or thrown in Azkaban," James finished for him. "We've heard it before, Remus."

"Yet you still seem to have an extremely blasé attitude about getting found out," Remus pointed out.

At that point, Peter interrupted. "When do we start brewing?" he asked tactfully.

"As soon as the cauldron arrives," Remus said.

* * *

><p>Sirius felt the days jolt past as though they were the seconds of a particularly loud clock and every tick struck an immense beat against his heart. They'd started with twenty seven days, which had gone to twenty six, which had jumped to twenty… and now they only had eighteen days to brew the potion <em>and <em>figure out how to become animagi for real.

He felt helpless, weighed down, burdened by the idea that it wouldn't be done in time and that Remus, once more, would have to go through the agonising transformation that Sirius had endured the full moon before. He didn't want that to happen – he couldn't let that happen. They were _so close_ to transforming, yet it was still dancing just out of their reach, and nothing had every frustrated Sirius more.

The more time that passed, the more Sirius worried that they wouldn't make it. It had been a tall order to begin with – becoming Animagi by the next full moon. As the time slipped past them, it was starting to look more and more impossible. Every time he saw Remus, he was reminded that the werewolf was _counting _on them to get this done.

And that wasn't the only thing that was burdening him when he thought of Remus.

He'd tried, for the past two days, to forget what had happened the last time he and Remus had been left alone in the dormitory. He hadn't been very successful in forgetting, but he'd tried harder than he'd ever tried in his life.

Regardless of his attempts, however, he couldn't manage to erase that moment from his mind. Sometimes it was all he could think of; Remus's lips on his, their bodied lying against each other, the adorable look of surprise that had defined his face when Sirius had first leaned in.

And it terrified him. He didn't know what it meant. He didn't know how it made him feel, or how it was _supposed_ to feel. He certainly didn't know what to do about it. He'd always assumed he was straight… and now even that assumption might be wrong, if his uncertain feelings for his best friend were anything to go by.

And he was finding more and more that, while facing the great unknown, the most pleasant solution was to hide under his sheets and pretend that nothing was wrong. By not acknowledging that the kiss had happened, he'd avoided an argument, an embarrassing situation and, most likely, a conversation about his feelings that neither of them particularly wanted to endure.

But he was starting to wonder that, if avoiding uncomfortable topics really was such a brilliant solution…

Why did thinking of Remus make him feel like he'd been stabbed in the heart?

* * *

><p>"Yeah, and then McGonagall showed up in the middle of Care of Magical Creatures and pulled her out!" James whispered to his friends in conspiratorial tones. "I mean, it's <em>Mary MacDonald, <em>so she obviously didn't do something wrong or anything like that. Something serious must have do you think it was?"

"I think what's happened is that you're being a nosy git again, Potter," said a very feminine voice from behind him. Remus couldn't help but smile at Lily's tone and buried himself in the newspaper that had just arrived – partly to hide his grin, and partly because he didn't want to be involved in the upcoming drama.

"I'm not being nosy," James said indignantly. "I'm… concerned."

"Yes, you seem incredibly concerned, gossiping behind her back," Lily said coldly.

"Well everyone's talking about it," James protested.

"That doesn't mean _you _should be!"

"Lily," Remus said, finally interrupting. The humour had left his face – and not because he was trying to hide it. "Leave it."

This instantly fired her up. "Why, because he's Potter and he should be exempt from all rules? Because he hasn't shown a decent trace of morality ever in his life?"

"No," Remus said quietly. "Because it's in the paper."

At those words, Lily deflated. The Marauders, on the other hand, exclaimed a simultaneous, "_What?"_

"_Meredith MacDonald, Ministry of Magic employee, was attacked and killed yesterday morning in her home in Belfast_," Remus read out. "_Aurors were at the scene almost instantly, but so far no one from the Ministry has spoken about the incident. However, witnesses at the scene confirmed sighting the Dark Mark above the building. The Dark Mark is the recognised sigil of the rebel group known as the Death Eaters, who follow a man known to the world as 'Lord Voldemort'." _Remus scanned the paper for a moment, looking for more relevant material. Then he added, "And then it just goes on about Death Eater attacks becoming more frequent, and how the Ministry are beginning to take steps to combat the situation."

"Her mother's _dead_?" whispered James.

"I hope you're need for gossip is satisfied," Lily snapped at him.

James actually managed to be annoyed by this. "How was I supposed to know what had happened? If I had, then I wouldn't have been treating it like it was just some person getting caught snogging behind the greenhouses."

Lily rubbed her face tiredly. And then she did something that took all of them by surprise. "You're right, I'm sorry," she said, sinking into the seat beside James and pulling a bowl of cereal towards her. "I didn't mean to snap. I've been up all night with her. Her home's destroyed, and they couldn't get her to her aunt's until this morning."

And James, despite the fact that this situation was something he'd been wanting for years, looked terrified at the prospect of holding a regular conversation with Lily Evans. "Have you… erm… considered just going to bed?" he suggested. "I'm sure McGonagall wouldn't mind, given the circumstances."

Lily shook her head. "No, I don't want to miss class," she said. She opened her mouth to say something else but, at that moment, Remus spread the newspaper out on the table, creating a loud noise and upsetting several plates of food. "Look," he said to Sirius excitedly, temporarily forgetting that there was a great rift between them. "At the bottom."

He pointed to the last paragraph on the article about Meredith MacDonald. Sirius began reading it. _"The reasons Mrs MacDonald were targeted are unknown, although speculations have arisen in the time following the attack. Sources have revealed that, as well as being in a high-up position in the Ministry, Mrs MacDonald was also a valuable member of the Order of the Phoenix. These rumours have yet to be confirmed by-"_

Sirius looked up from the paper, frowning. "So what?" he asked.

"It's them again!" Remus exclaimed. "The group Brad was talking about. They keep showing up in the newspapers too – never as a main feature of an article, just pieces like this, tacked onto the end of a long piece on Death Eaters."

The blank look on Sirius's face remained and James sighed. "I think what Moony is trying to say, Padfoot, is that, once again, this Order have cropped up in a report about a Death Eater attack. And while the paper isn't revealing anything about them-"

"It's what they _aren't _saying that's important," Lily interrupted smoothly, successfully finishing James's sentence. "What?" she asked defensively as four pairs of eyes turned to look at her.

"Not exactly what I was going to say," James said, looking slightly amused. "But close enough."

"I still don't get it," Peter said.

"This Order keep showing up in all these important articles," explained Remus. "Always only ever mentioned, as though there was more information that was relevant but it's been cut out. If they're important enough to be mentioned, why is there never anything more about them? Why do none of these articles say what the Order _is_?"

"There's an awful lot being hidden from the public eye," Lily continues for him. "And you have to wonder why, don't you?"

"Well, they're a secret order, aren't they?" Sirius pointed out. "The keyword there being _secret_. They don't want too much being known about them."

"Or the media don't want everyone to know about it," Remus added. "And when I say 'media', I mean whoever is controlling the media."

"The Ministry," Lily said.

"Why wouldn't the Ministry want people to know that there are people out there fighting _him_?" Peter asked.

Remus shrugged. "Because they don't want to admit they're not doing anything?" he suggested. "It doesn't really matter _why _they're being hidden from sight, or who's hiding them. The point is that they're out there and they're doing stuff."

"And if they're the people fighting Voldemort, they're who we need to join up with," James said.

The other four just at him with no small amount of surprise.

"I think you're jumping the gun a bit there, mate," Sirius said dryly.

"I thought that's where this conversation was heading," James said defensively.

"I think it was," Remus said, "but not that quickly…"

"What's jumping the gun?" Peter asked.

"Muggle phrase," Lily said distractedly.

"Muggle Studies is the only class Sirius pays attention in," Remus added. "Who would have thought he'd actually learn something in his six years at Hogwarts?"

"Anyway," James interrupted, bringing the conversation back on track. "The Order of the Phoenix. By the looks of it, they're the people we should be joining, rather than the Ministry."

"I doubt they'd take school children, though," Lily said. "We're not even of age. We'd have to wait until after we left."

Remus wondered where this 'we' was coming from. He and Lily were friends, of course, but the red-headed girl couldn't _stand _James and Sirius. Why had they suddenly become a group of five?

Remus was too tactful to ask. Sirius, however, wasn't. " 'We', Evans?" he drawled. "I was under the impression that you'd rather be trampled by hippogriffs than join forces with us."

"Oh, I would," Lily told him brightly. "But seeing as we're on the same side, planning the same plans, joining forces makes logical sense. And I'm also speaking for Mary, don't forget."

"Mary?" James asked, surprised.

"Yes, her mother was in the Order and, before her death, she was very interested in the fight against Voldemort. Provided that hasn't changed, she'll definitely be on board with everything said here." Lily stood up from the table, surveying the four Marauders with unreadable eyes. "By the way, we're late for class."

Remus leapt up from the table. In the excitement of the conversation, he'd completely lost track of time and had failed to notice that, one by one, the hall had emptied as everyone else headed off for their lessons. "I _hate _being late," he said, grabbing his bag as dashed out the door.

"Bye, Remus," an amused James shouted after him as the other three slowly and casually extracted themselves from the table and gathered their possessions with a deliberate slowness.

"I hope they get a detention," Remus muttered to himself.


End file.
